Days with the Down Feathers
by Skoolgrl09
Summary: A look back on the POM's childhood at the Central Park Zoo, before they became the elite force that they are today. Warning: Rating Varies. Rated K-plus for added safety.BTW:This story is now up and operational, again. Thanks for waiting patiently.
1. Chapter 1

" Days with the Down Feathers"

Hello readers and welcome to the story, which traces all the way back to the penguins' childhood. If I stole anybody's story title. I apologize for it. It was the only title I could think of, but at the same time, it sounded familiar, not from my own stories, but from somewhere else and I don't know why. But, hey? It's just a title. Warning: I may revise this chapter, again. BTW: This story was inspired by the episode " All Choked Up", when Skipper told Rico that he was his brother and Private said that the penguin on the T.V. looked like their Uncle Nigel. So, I figured that I'd post a story about the POM being brothers, along with a few more surprises, along the way. Anyways. Please enjoy.

Chapter 1

Many years ago, before the penguins had become the elite force that they are today, they used to live with

their parents, at the same zoo, as they do now. It turns out, that both of their parents had lived at the

Central Park Zoo their entire lives and were both assigned to each other for the breeding program. Together,

the penguins' parents had only three chicks, so far, which were four years apart in penguin years, with one

on the way. It was in early April and it was a beautiful, yet, chilly day out. The penguins' parents were both

taking turns incubating their new egg. The mother got her turn and placed the egg on her feet, to help keep

it warm.

" So, Honey," The tall, but slim father penguin turned to the short, but big boned mother penguin. He spoke

in a Spanish accent." What name shall we give to the little hatchling, once it comes out of its shell," the father

questioned as he put his flipper around the mother's shoulder, staring at her with his sapphire blue eyes.

" I don't know, Dear," The mother penguin pondered in her British accent as she stared back at the father

with her light blue eyes." We won't even know if it's a girl or a boy, until it hatches."

" And speaking of boys," the father penguin raised an eyebrow and looked around the habitat. " Where are

they?"

Suddenly, out of nowhere, three young penguins jumped out of the building and onto the platform. They had

begun chasing each other around, pretending to be military penguins in a war.

" Hurry up, Private," a short, flat-headed penguin squeaked to a tall looking penguin. The name "Private" was

a nickname given to whomever was playing as the lowest rank in the game. The short penguin's voice was in

the process of changing, while he was barking out orders, plus he was the oldest and about twelve years old

in penguin years. " The leopard seal captain, Rico, is coming!"

The tall penguin fell down, flat on his stomach, while he was running. " Skipper," he panted as he shouted in

a soft voice, whining. " Go on without me!"

" Come on, Kowalski," Skipper barked the penguin's real name as his voice cracked, again. He ran up to

Kowalski, who was still laying on the platform. He was the second oldest of the group and was only eight

years old. " A good soldier doesn't leave a man behind! Now come on! Let's go before the enemy comes,"

soon, a penguin dressed up in a leopard seal Halloween costume, which had used to belong to the father

when he was little, jumped out of the fishbowl entrance. He was not as tall as Kowalski nor was he as short

as Skipper, but he was strong looking and had a fast acting gag reflex, plus he had just barely turned four

years of age. The penguin charged at the two and went to tackle them. Skipper grabbed Kowalski by one his

flippers and dragged him out of the way by running, causing the charging penguin to fall onto the platform,

landing on his belly. He got up quickly and began running after the two penguins. While they were running,

Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico went around their parents, causing their father to fall into the pool and their

mother to pick up the egg from her feet with her flippers.

The father climbed out quickly, stood back up on the platform, and put his flippers on his hips. " Boys," he

shouted, glaring at his three sons. " Get! Over! Here! Right now!" The three little penguins stopped playing

and waddled over to their parents. They all lowered their heads and put their flippers behind their backs,

knowing that they were in trouble.

" Yes Daddy," the three penguins nervously stated simultaneously.

" Do you realize what you boys almost did," the father snapped, angrily. None of the kids answered, because

they were too afraid to. " You could've made your momma drop the new egg and break it or worse, you

could've gotten yourselves and me hurt! That's what you almost did!"

" Sorry, Daddy," the three penguins looked up at their father, guiltily.

" Juan," the mother penguin waddled to the father penguin, still holding the egg in her flippers. " It was just

an accident. They didn't mean for that to almost happen. They're just kids."

" I know, Maggie," Juan grumbled, turning to Maggie. " But the boys need to learn responsibility, especially

since the egg will be hatching soon."

" The egg will be hatching soon," Kowalski raised an eyebrow. " When?"

" Anywhere between now and the next few days," Maggie retorted, joyfully.

" Oh," Kowalski stated intriguingly then pulled out his abacus, which he had gotten as a Christmas present,

when he still had some of his down feathers. He began calculating. " According to my calculations and the

egg's incubation time," Kowalski moved the beads around a few more times, before stopping. " I'd say, it

should be hatching sometime today, but I can't tell you when."

" How do you even know that," Skipper stared over at Kowalski with a raised eyebrow.

" Because, unlike you, I actually pay attention in zoo school," he grumbled then put his abacus away.

Kowalski had actually skipped a few grades and wound up in the same group as Skipper, in the sixth-grade.

Rico took his leopard seal costume off and stashed it in his stomach. It turns out that the zoo veterinarians

did an x-ray on him a few days after he had hatched and found out that he could store large objects in his

stomach and cough them back out immediately, but later found out that it had damaged his vocal cords,

making it harder for him to squawk. After a while, Rico could only utter out a few words here and there, but it

would take a lot of effort. In order try and make himself talk, he would swallow objects, hoping to find

something that would help him speak, again, and continued to do so, ever since. After swallowing the

costume, he continued listening to the other penguins' conversation.

" Hey," Skipper started to argue, feeling offended. " At least I don't get trash canned at school by bullies, like

you do."

" That's only because they're jealous of me, because I get the better grades," Kowalski snapped back.

" No. It's because you're a nerd and an easy target for them to get to," Skipper put his flippers on his hips. "

That's why."

" Kids," Maggie tried to intervene, but was ignored.

" I am not a nerd and I'm not an easy target, either," Kowalski exclaimed, also putting his flippers on his hips.

" Kids," Juan attempted authoritatively, but failed. Meanwhile, Rico stood there, watching his siblings argue,

by turning his head from side to side.

Skipper removed one of his fingers from his hips, pointed it at Kowalski's chest, and gasped. " What is that?"

" What," Kowalski looked down at his chest. " I don't see…" Suddenly, without warning, Skipper snapped his

flipper up and hit it on the bottom part of Kowalski's beak, causing it to vibrate in place, until it came to a

stop.

" See," Skipper folded his flippers, using his cocky attitude. " Easy target."

" Kids, that's enough," Juan raised his voice. " Now Skipper, apologize to your younger brother, right now!"

" But, he," Skipper jumped, pointing to Kowalski.

" Skipper," Maggie butted in defensively, putting a flipper on her hip, while still holding the egg with the

other. " Mind your father, please."

" Yes, Momma," Skipper saluted in defeat then turned to Kowalski. He was not a huge fan of apologies nor

did he know how to say them well. " Kowalski," he stuttered. " I'm sorry that I made fun of you and flicked

you on the bottom part of your beak."

" Ah, that's okay," Kowalski raised one of his flippers and flicked the end of it down, acceptingly. " Brotherly

love, flipper shake."

" Brotherly love, flipper shake," Skipper and Kowalski smiled at each other then slapped flippers. Rico went to

join in, but was quickly halted when his two siblings pulled their flippers away. " Sorry, Rico. We still need to

work on the Brotherly love, flipper shake with you, before you can join us. Alright?" The penguin groaned,

lowered his head in melancholy, and nodded.

Suddenly, a few moments later, the family of penguins heard a cracking sound. They all looked down at the

egg in Maggie's flippers. It was finally hatching. After it was done hatching, all of the penguins looked at what

came out of it. It was the baby penguin that they had all been waiting for. The parents quickly checked to see

what it was. It was a boy. A beautiful, baby boy penguin, who had humongous, light blue eyes and fluffy,

down feathers.

" Wow," Maggie looked at the baby in her flippers with widened eyes. " He's so adorable."

" So, Maggie," Juan began, taking the baby out of Maggie's flippers and holding it in his. He began tickling his

tummy, with his free flipper. " Now that we know what it is. What should we name him?"

" We could name him after you," Maggie suggested as she looked down at the baby, smiling. The baby smiled

back.

" Nah," Juan huffed. " You suggested that we named Skipper, Kowalski, and Rico that after they had hatched

and I told you no. Remember? Plus, I've told you a thousand times that I don't like the name Juan, because it

is an easily mocked name around here. How about we call him Ace?"

" Ace," Maggie raised an eyebrow at him, curiously. " As in your Uncle Ace? The penguin that served in the

military and died before you had even hatched?"

" Yeah," Juan smiled widely. " That's the one. And he was one of the greatest heroes of all time. Which is why

I'm suggesting that we name him Ace."

" I don't know," Maggie glanced down at the baby then thought about it for a moment. " All right. Ace it is."

" Ah, Ace, our youngest son," Juan cooed as he hugged the baby. " What do you think of that name, little

guy?" The baby clapped and smiled at it.

" Ace," Rico shouted cheerfully as he watched the baby from behind his brothers. " Brother!"

" And our new private, Private," Skipper smiled, observing the baby in his father's flippers and turned toward

Kowalski, who was still looking at the baby. " Right, Kowalski?"

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Aww. Private has finally come into the picture. Tear . Tear. Anyways. Coming up next in Chapter 2. Catch Kowalski's response to Skipper's question. Also see how well the family takes to a new baby being around the habitat. Please stay tuned and find out more. BTW : The title for the story was the best that I could come up with. It doesn't really go along with the story, but I guess, in someway, it does kind of go along with the story, seeing that Private had just hatched. Also, I made up the penguin's age differences. I'm not really sure on how penguin years differ from human years and I don't know the POM real ages, so I just made them up, plus I decided to keep their heights at about the same differences, only shorter, because I didn't really want to change them . Anyways. Thank-you for reading this message.


	2. Chapter 2

" Days with the Down Feathers"

Thanks for the reviews everyone. They were fantastic. Now here's the next chapter. Warning: I may revise this chapter, again. Anyways. Please enjoy.

Chapter 2

He was in the process of estimating its weight and health by looking at its physical appearance. Kowalski

nodded his head then turned to Skipper. " I think that he will make an excellent addition to our team, after

he gets his swimming feathers, of course." Skipper nodded his head in agreement. Both of the penguins

turned their heads back to the baby. Rico, who wanted a better view of the new penguin, squeezed in

between his brothers and began to play peek-a-boo, causing the baby to cry at first then laugh afterwards.

Soon, Ace had fallen asleep in his father's flippers. After he had fallen asleep, the parents brought him inside

the building, through the fishbowl entrance, and laid him in his ice-carved crib, which sat across from the

bunks.

" Goodnight, my little Ace," Maggie kissed the baby on his forehead.

" Sweet dreams," Juan gently ruffled the baby's feathers on the top of his head. Both of the parents

remained inside with the baby for the rest of the day.

Meanwhile, outside, the three little penguins began to speak to one another. " Kowalski," Skipper barked. "

What are the options for greeting our newest recruit, Ace, or, according to our military game rules for names,

Private?"

" We could greet him by giving him a teddy bear," Kowalski kindly suggested. Skipper raised a stern eyebrow

at him. " What," he shrugged. " Babies love teddy bears."

" I don't think so," Skipper groaned, with a sudden high pitched squeak in his voice. " How about we give him

a squirt gun? The private has got to defend himself some how when we go to battle the leopard seal

captain."

" A squirt gun," Kowalski squealed skeptically. " Skipper, you can't be serious? He's too young to handle a

squirt gun."

" Fishy," Rico shouted out joyfully as he held out a fish in front of Skipper's face.

" No thanks, Rico," Skipper pushed the fish away, irritably. " I'm not hungry, right now. I'm trying to think."

" No," Rico snarled at him then held the fish back out to his oldest brother. " Fishy? Gift?"

" Sorry, Rico," Kowalski sighed. " I'm afraid that Ace won't be able to keep that gift for too long. It'll either get

eaten or go bad." Rico groaned, lowering his flippers with the fish in them. " But," the tall penguin took a

flipper to his beak. " I do have an idea of what we could do with the fish, so that he can keep it forever, plus

he would not have to worry about eating it. Skipper, do you remember where Daddy keeps his old, broken

fishing trophies and plaques?"

" Yeah," Skipper raised an eyebrow. " He keeps them in the hallway closet. Why?"

Kowalski looked around, quickly. " You'll see," he smiled deviously. Soon, the three penguins waddled inside,

through the fishbowl entrance. Once they went inside, they saw their parents asleep on the bottom bunk,

while Ace was still asleep in his crib. They quietly sneaked passed them and waddled up to the hallway door,

which was located on the other side of the bunks. Sadly, they were too short to reach the door handle by

themselves. Not even Kowalski, the tallest of the three, could reach that high. Suddenly, the little penguins

created a plan and formed a two-height pyramid, with Rico and Kowalski on the bottom and Skipper on the

top. Skipper pulled handle and opened the door, causing it to knock him and his brothers onto the floor. They

made a loud thump and winced, thinking that the others would wake up, but they did not. Instead, they still

remained asleep. The three penguins wiped their foreheads and slipped through the hallway door. They

continued walking, until they spotted the closet door, which was located on the right side of the hall.

The penguins formed their pyramid, again, only this time it was off to the side of the door. Skipper opened it,

hopped off of the other two's shoulders, and landed on the floor. Soon, the boys began digging through the

closet, trying to find the broken trophies and plaques. To their dismay, they were all on the top shelf of the

closet, inside of a cardboard box. They got into the pyramid formation, once more, but the shelf was too high

up.

" Rico? Kowalski," Skipper whispered fiercely. " Extension, please." The bottom penguins slipped their flippers

underneath Skipper's feet and lifted him up as far as their short, little limbs would allow them to go. Skipper

reached his flippers up toward the box, but still could not get to it. " Down, please," the young lead penguin

whispered in a lower toned voice that time. The other two followed his orders and lowered him back down

to their shoulders. From there, Skipper jumped off of them, again, and began pacing back and forth. " Okay,"

he sighed in defeat. " New plan. We'll go back to the squirt gun idea."

" Skipper," Kowalski raised his voice, sounding reasonable. " We've already discussed this. Ace is too young

to have a squirt gun."

" Teddy bear," Rico smiled as he suggested Kowalski's old idea.

" No teddy bear," Skipper barked with a squeaking, cracking sound in his voice as he looked up at the top

shelf of the closet. " There has to be another way up there. Kowalski, options, please?"

" You know, Skipper," Kowalski folded his flippers. " Every time you ask me for options, I have a difficult time

keeping track of which ones I want to give to you, seeing that they're tricky to map out."

Skipper growled at him then saw something in one of the cardboard boxes on the floor of the closet. He

waddled up to it and pulled out a clipboard with some paper and a pencil attached to it. " Here," Skipper

waddled back to Kowalski and smacked the clipboard directly into his face, hurting him. " Use this. Now,

come up with some options, please. I'm not getting any younger here."

" Neither are the rest of us," Kowalski growled as he pulled the clipboard off of his face with his flippers then

looked down at it. He grabbed the pencil and began drawing on the paper. About a few minutes later, he had

come up with five different options. The first option was running and jumping, the second option was getting

into the pyramid formation and launching one of the penguins up, the third option was waking up one their

parents and having them get the box down for them, the fourth option was stacking into a three-height,

ladder up or shoulder stand, and the fifth option was grabbing onto each other's limbs and pulling on them,

in hopes of making themselves taller.

Kowalski showed the clipboard to Skipper, who snatched it from his flippers. " Okay," he looked over the

options carefully. " Can't jump that high. This one's a head hazard. Momma and Daddy would be grouchy if

we woke them up. That last one is just pure torture. Perfect." Skipper smiled widely. " Let's go with the

fourth option. Ladder up, boys." The penguins stacked onto each other's shoulders with Rico at the bottom,

Kowalski in the middle, and Skipper at the top. This was the first time that they had ever attempted to do a

three-height stunt. Skipper reached up and grabbed the box with the trophies and plaques inside. From

there, he looked down and froze. " Uh, oh," he stuttered nervously with his normal voice.

" Uh, oh, what," Kowalski questioned curiously, glancing up at Skipper.

Skipper looked down at Kowalski with a raised eyebrow." How in the shrimp am I suppose to get down from

here?"

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Aww. The three little penguins were going to give their youngest brother, Ace( Private) a gift. How sweet. Oh, great. Skipper can't get down. ( panicky tone)Someone,please call for help!( normal tone) Anyways. Coming up next in Chapter 3. Catch Kowalski's answer to Skipper's question. Please stay tuned and find out more. BTW : All three of the penguin boys call the new baby both Ace and Private. Thank-you for reading this message.


	3. Chapter 3

" Days with the Down Feathers"

Thanks for the reviews everyone. They were wonderful. Now here's the next chapter. Warning: I may revise this chapter, again. Please enjoy.

Chapter 3

" I don't know," Kowalski squeaked. " I didn't even think of that."

" Oh, for the love of Halibut," he smacked his forehead on the box.

" Tired," Rico yawned about ready to fall asleep. Holding his older brothers up on his shoulders was

exhausting him.

" Rico," Skipper barked, lifting his head up from the box. " Now's not the time to be taking a nap. We need to

figure a way out of this jam." He paused and pondered for a moment. " Maybe if I jump off..."

" I don't think that that would be such a good idea, Skipper," Kowalski suggested, trying to be reasonable. "

You could get hurt."

" Kowalski," Skipper ruffled his feathers. " I've jumped off of several high things before and have never

gotten hurt once."

" But you haven't jumped off of anything this high before without a mat to help break your fall," Kowalski

raised his voice. " The cement floor could really do some damage to you."

" Kowalski," Skipper scoffed. " With the gymnastics training that I've had, I should be able to stick the

landing, just fine."

" If you say so," Kowalski muttered underneath his breath. " But, what about the box? You can't perform

gymnastics with it. It's too heavy."

" Here," Skipper handed the box down to Kowalski. " If your so worried. Take it." Kowalski took the box then

passed it down to Rico, who accidentally let it smash loudly onto the floor. " Nice going, Rico," Skipper put his

flippers on his hips, using his stern voice. " Jeopardize the mission, why don't you?"

" Sorry," Rico shrugged, guiltily.

" Skipper," Kowalski snapped defensively. " Could you please try to be a little more sensitive? He's just a

toddler."

" Can it, Kowalski," Skipper snapped back. He looked over at the door, which led to the bunkroom. Nothing

stirred. " Well, it looks like you got lucky this time, Rico," he looked down at Rico. " Now. Back to the mission."

" Skipper," Kowalski uttered curiously. " Are you sure that you want to do this?"

" Yes, I'm sure, Kowalski," Skipper barked. " Now, will you please can it, so I can get down from here?"

" Okay! Okay," Kowalski growled then whispered. " Jerk."

" I heard that! Alright," Skipper took in a deep breath and let it out. " Here goes nothing." Soon, Skipper

leaped off of the top of Kowalski's shoulders and attempted a back flip. Suddenly, without warning, he

accidentally twisted the flip, making it crooked, and landed on his right leg, hard, breaking it. Skipper crashed

down onto the floor, grabbing it in pain. Kowalski saw what had happened and jumped off of Rico's shoulder.

" Skipper," he shouted worriedly as he ran to Skipper and stopped. " Are you okay?"

" Does it look like I'm okay, you nerdy knucklehead," Skipper shouted at him with another crack in his voice.

" Uh, no," Kowalski retorted, feeling insulted.

" Then go get me a medic, now! Please," Skipper wailed as he still held onto his leg.

" Okay," Kowalski readied himself to run off. " I'll go get Momma and Daddy. They'll know what to do." He

sprinted down the hallway, dropping the clipboard, and disappeared behind the door to the bunkroom.

Meanwhile, Rico stayed behind and tried to help Skipper stand up. After a few moments, he had Skipper's

flipper supported around one of his shoulders. Together, the two began to make their way toward the door,

with Skipper limping on his left leg.

Out of breath, Kowalski barged into the room, causing the door to hit the wall. Soon, everybody woke up

with a startle, including the baby, who now began to bawl. " Momma? Daddy," he shouted as he ran up to

them. " Skipper broke his leg! Come on!"

" He what," the parents shouted simultaneously, after waking up. They were now worried sick.

" Kowalski, where is he," Juan questioned nervously.

" He's in the hallway," Kowalski retorted pointing to the hall. Without hesitation, the parents left the room,

leaving Kowalski alone with the baby. Kowalski stayed behind and waddled up to it, trying to figure out how

to make him stop crying. He picked Ace up and supported him on one of his shoulders. From there, he ran

through the door and back down the hallway.

Shocked, the parents saw Skipper being supported by Rico and ran up to him. " Skipper," Maggie shouted,

hugging the oldest son, with Juan not too far behind. " You're alright. Thank-goodness."

" What do you mean I'm alright," Skipper raised an eyebrow as his parents pulled away. " Look at me."

" I don't understand, Skipper," Juan scratched is chin. " How did you manage to break your leg?"

" I fell," Skipper hesitated, looking away.

" Fell like how," Juan folded his flippers. He knew that Skipper was trying to hide something from them.

" Well…I," Skipper stuttered.

Suddenly, Kowalski ran up to the group with Ace still crying in his flippers. Kowalski was now completely out

of breath. " Here," he held the baby out to his parents, who were now looking at him. " Please...take...him."

The mother took the baby from Kowalski's flippers. Afterward, Kowalski collapsed onto the floor, too tired to

get back up. Soon, the baby stopped crying and went back to sleep in his mother's flippers.

" So," Juan turned back to Skipper. " As you were saying about how you broke your leg by falling."

" Well," Skipper thought of a lie to avoid getting into trouble with his parents. " I was running fast when I

fell, landed on my leg, and then I broke it."

" Skipper," Kowalski shouted, standing back up. " That's not how you broke your leg."

" It's not," Juan glared at Skipper, with a raised eyebrow.

" No," Kowalski looked at his father.

" Then how did it happen," Maggie raised an eyebrow. Kowalski explained the story about how Skipper

broke his leg, right after he had gotten something out of the hallway closet. When he was finished, the

parents glared at their three eldest sons. " Kids," the mother put one of her flippers on her hips. " We're very

disappointed in you."

"Especially you, Skipper," the father put both of his flippers on his hips. " You almost set a very bad example

for your brothers, by lying. And just for that, you are grounded for two weeks for that, digging through the

closet, and performing dangerous stunts without permission and adult supervision. Now apologize to your

younger siblings, at once."

" Two weeks, but," Skipper stuttered, but his father growled at him. " Yes, Daddy." He turned to Rico and

Kowalski, who were now standing next to each other, and sighed. " I'm sorry that I almost set a bad

example for you two, by lying." Rico and Kowalski, swiftly accepted his apology by simply nodding their

heads.

" And as for you two," Juan looked over at Rico and Kowalski, too. " You are both grounded for one week,

just for tagging along with Skipper in the stunts and digging through the hallway closet without permission

and adult supervision, as well."

" And speaking of that," Maggie pondered. " Why were you boys digging through the closet, in the first

place?"

________________________________________________________________________________________

Oh, no. Skipper broke his leg. Why, oh, why, did he choose not to listen to Kowalski? Anyways. Coming up next in Chapter 4. Catch the little penguins' answer to their mother's question, along with Kowalski's plan. Please stay tuned and find out more.


	4. Chapter 4

" Days with the Down Feathers"

Thanks for the review everyone. They were excellent. Now here's the next chapter. Please enjoy. Warning: I may revise this chapter, again.

Chapter 4

" Well," Kowalski slowly began. " We were going to use one of Daddy's old plaques and glue a fish to it,

after I modify it, of course."

" That and we we're going to give it to Ace a.k.a Private in our future military games, as a welcome gift,"

Skipper quickly added.

" You boys were going to make a gift for Ace," Juan raised an eyebrow. The three boys nodded their heads.

" Why didn't you tell us," Maggie raised an eyebrow with concern. " Your father and I would've been more

than happy to help you out."

" We didn't want to wake you," Kowalski stuttered.

" And see what happened when you boys didn't wake us," Juan gestured toward Skipper, who was now

sitting on the floor, leaning back on his flippers. " It could've been worse than this, boys. Way worse."

" Don't pin this on all of us, Daddy," Skipper spoke up, not wanting to get grounded for any longer than he

already was, but felt that he should do the right thing this time. " It's mostly my fault. I told them not to ask

for your help."

" Why," Maggie questioned curiously.

" You normally get mad when we wake you and yell at us," Skipper shrugged.

" Get mad at," Juan smacked himself on the forehead. " Skipper? That is only when we haven't had our fish

coffee in the morning."

" Coffee," Kowalski raised an eyebrow. " I thought that humans were the only ones who could drink coffee."

" True, but," Maggie stated in a matter-of-fact tone. " This brand of coffee is specially designed for penguins

to drink. Now come on. We'd better get Skipper off to see the doctor."

" Which doctor," Juan raised an eyebrow then picked Skipper up off of the floor. " The zoo infirmary's or

Dr. Blowhole's ex-wife, Linda?"

"Linda, but I need to call her first and tell her that we're coming over," Maggie retorted then waddled down

the hall to the door of the bunkroom. The rest of the family followed her and they waddled through the door

together. Along the way, Kowalski stopped, picked up the clipboard that he had dropped, and made it

disappear behind his back. After that, he followed the others inside, before his father closed the door.

After they got inside, Juan sat Skipper down at the table and propped his leg up on one of the other chairs,

while Maggie put Ace back in his crib. Afterwards, Maggie grabbed a walkie-talkie, which was hanging on the

wall, next to the bunks, and tuned it to the frequency of the dolphin's waterproof walkie-talkie. Once it was

tuned, she hit a button, which had made a tweeting sound on the other side of the line. Maggie waited

patiently for someone to answer.

Meanwhile, Rico and Kowalski joined Skipper at the table and kept silent, while Juan joined Maggie, over by

the bunks. About a few seconds later, somebody picked up. " Hello," a young, soft, girly voice said into the

walkie-talkie.

" Hello, Doris. This is Maggie," Maggie retorted in a friendly tone. " Is your mother home?"

" Yeah. Hold on," Doris said then yelled. " Mommy? It's for you!"

" Who is it," Doris' mother's voice echoed into the walkie-talkie. She and her daughter were the only one's,

who lived in the dolphin aquarium now. The father, Dr. Blowhole, was transferred to a different zoo, shortly

after the divorce with the mother and right after Doris was born. The mother dolphin had been single and

taking care of Doris by her self, ever since.

" It's Maggie," Doris stated cheerfully then handed the walkie-talkie over to her mother, who swam over to

her.

" Hello," Doris' mother answered confidently.

" Hi, Linda," Maggie sounded urgent. " Just thought I should let you know that we're coming over to your

place today. Skipper broke his right leg."

" Broke his leg, huh," Linda stated then looked down at her schedule. " Hold on let me check my list of

appointments. Oh? You're in luck. You can bring him over, right now."

" Great," Maggie cheered. " We'll be right over. Thank-you." Both mother's shut off the walkie-talkies.

" So," Juan began curiously. " What did she say?"

" She said that we can bring Skipper over, right now," Maggie retorted.

" That's great," Juan exclaimed. " I'll go get Skipper, Rico, and Kowalski, while you go get Ace." He waddled

over to the table and picked up Skipper, again, while Maggie picked up Ace and put him in a baby carrier.

Soon, the family left their habitat and began waddling toward the dolphin aquarium.

" Must you carry me like a baby," Skipper questioned irritably, while the family was still waddling outside. " I

can limp just fine on one leg, you know?"

" Yes, I must carry you like a baby," Juan retorted strictly, but reasonably. " Otherwise, we'll both be in pain.

Unless, you'd prefer me to go back to the habitat and put you in the baby stroller or have you switch place's

with Ace and ride in the carrier the rest of the way there?"

" No thanks," Skipper's eyes widened at the thought of being humiliated in front of the other zoo animals'

kids. " This way is fine."

" I figured you would say that," Juan smiled deviously.

Rico groaned then yawned, again. It was way passed his naptime and he was starting to get a little cranky.

Kowalski, on the other hand, brought the clipboard out from behind his back and began writing down math

equations on it. He was estimating the amount of time it would take to waddle to the dolphin's habitat, while

going at different speeds and directions. His mother noticed it and glanced over at him. " Hey," Maggie smiled

as she whispered quietly, to avoid waking up the baby in the carrier. " I've been looking for that clipboard.

Where on Earth did you find it?"

" What," Kowalski looked up and pointed to the clipboard. " This? Skipper found it on the bottom of the

closet, inside of a box. Would you like it back?"

" No thanks," Maggie uttered as she looked at her old clipboard, which she used to doodle on all the time,

when she was Kowalski's age, but lost it when she and her husband were trying to child proof their habitat.

" You can keep it. I don't really need it anymore."

" There," Rico grumbled. " Yet?"

" No, Rico," Skipper glanced down at Rico. " We're not there, yet."

" We're there," Juan stated as they arrived at the dolphin's habitat. He reached over and pushed a doorbell

button, which was hidden on the bottom of the tank. Soon, a large dolphin with brown eyes swam toward

the glass, which surrounded the habitat. It was Linda. She waved at the penguins to come up the stairway,

to the top of the tank. The penguins listened to her and began waddling up the stairs.

While they were waddling, they saw a doctor's office, which was floating on top of the dolphins' habitat. After

they got up to the top of the habitat, Linda popped her head out of the water and jumped into her office,

which was portable and easy to hide at the push of a button. Soon, she began walking on her tail fins. Linda

approached the family of penguins, who were standing by the edge of the top of the habitat. " Hey," she

smiled then looked at the penguin in Juan's arms. " I take it that this must be Skipper?"

" Yep," Juan answered quickly.

" Follow me," she waved the penguins to come over into her office. Juan set Skipper down on the

examination table, after they got there. Maggie set the baby carrier down on the floor next to Rico and

Kowalski and left Ace in it. " So," Linda began as she got out her equipment from a nearby drawer. " Skipper

broke his leg, did he? I'll need to check that." Suddenly, she pulled out a pair of advanced x-ray goggles

and examined Skipper's right leg. " Hmm," she mumbled as she got a closer look at the bone then took the

goggles off. " It appears to be only a fracture, but I'm afraid that he'll still have to wear a cast for eight

weeks, until the bone completely heals."

" I have to wear a cast for eight weeks," Skipper's voice cracked then he folded his flippers. " Oh, man. Now,

I'm going to be one of the last ones picked for dodge ball at zoo school. Well, second to last, anyway."

Skipper glanced down at Kowalski, who was doodling on his clipboard. Kowalski looked up from his clipboard

and glared at Skipper." Gee, glad I can be of help to you and your popularity status," he growled. Soon, Rico

leaned his back against the side of Kowalski and fell asleep. Linda pulled out more equipment and began

putting a cast on Skipper's leg. Before starting the procedure, she stuck Skipper's leg with a needle to numb

it, causing Skipper to scream and try to run away.

He hastily jumped off of the table, hoping to get away, but was caught in mid-air by his father and placed

back to where he had started. After that, it was smooth sailing from there. About half an hour later, Skipper

had a cast on his leg and was walking around with small crutches to keep him from putting pressure on his

bad leg. Soon, he hopped over to his brothers, who were still doing the same thing as they were before, and

waited quietly, but impatiently to leave. Meanwhile, the parents remained by Linda and began talking to her

about Ace and several other things.

Suddenly, someone else jumped out of the water and into the office. It was Doris, who was barely the size

of a full-grown pony and had the same eye color as her mother, Linda. " Hello," she smiled and waved as she

approached the group. Doris quickly noticed Ace, who was still sound asleep in the carrier, and walked over

to him. " Aww," her eyes brightened up. "Cute baby. What's it's name?"

" My brothers and I, well mostly me, call him Private in our military games," Skipper retorted proudly as he

looked at Doris. He was more opened up to others around this age, long before he had even became the

paranoid, adult military group commander, that he is now.

"But you can call him Ace. It's his real name," Kowalski uttered, not even looking up from his clipboard. " He

just barely hatched this morning, which was approximately two hours ago. I believe."

" Do I know you from somewhere," Doris squinted her eyes at Kowalski. " You look familiar."

" No, I don't think so," Kowalski remained focused, writing something down on his clipboard. " Sorry."

" You're not even looking at me," Doris chuckled as she raised an eyebrow and put her flippers on her hips.

Kowalski slowly looked up from his clipboard. " I can assure you that…Oh, my gosh," he shouted in a panicky

tone, after completely looking up and stuttered. "It's you!"

________________________________________________________________________________________

Wow. Dr. Blowhole has an ex-wife and a kid? Okay. That's interesting. BTW: Doris and her mom, Linda, are good dolphins. They are not villians like Dr. Blowhole is. Anyways. Coming up next in Chapter 5. Catch the reason why Kowalski screamed at Doris. Please stay tuned and find out more.


	5. Chapter 5

" Days with the Down Feathers"

Thanks for the reviews everyone. They were fabulous. Now here's the next chapter. Please enjoy. Warning: I may revise this chapter, again.

Chapter 5

Due to Kowalski's loud shout, he woke Ace and Rico up. Ace began bawling, again, and Rico jumped up with

a startle and fell onto the floor. He moaned as he stood back up then dusted himself off immediately.

Kowalski quickly lifted up his clipboard and hid behind it, trying to avoid eye contact with Doris. Meanwhile,

Juan waddled over, picked up Ace, who was still crying in the carrier, and took him over to where Maggie and

Linda were. The three boys stayed with Doris, not even going anywhere.

Kowalski's clipboard shook in his flippers, like a maraca. Truth be told, Doris used to pick on Kowalski all the

time, while they were both in the same grade. She used to squirt water at him and dunk him in the zoo

school's swimming pool on purpose. Kowalski had been afraid of and tried to avoid her, ever since, but he

failed.

" Kowalski," Doris raised an eyebrow. " From when we were in the first grade? I thought that was you."

" Yeah. And now I'm in the," he stated irritably and paused to try to prevent him self from telling Doris which

grade he was in now. " Never mind. You'll just ruin one of my happy places, again."

" I honestly don't see how the sixth grade can be a happy place for you, seeing that you get bullied a lot,"

Skipper scoffed with a smirk across his beak. Kowalski grew angry and wanted to snatch the crutches from

his brother, but figured it would be too insensitive to do. So, he decided to just ignore Skipper's comment.

" The sixth grade," Doris widened her eyes, gave a huge smile, and clapped cheerfully. " Oh, boy! I'm not too

far behind you then!"

" You're…not," Kowalski stuttered as his clipboard muffled his voice. " W…what grade are you in?"

" The fifth grade," Doris replied proudly. " But I should be moving up to the sixth grade sometime next

week."

" That's great, Doris," Kowalski chuckled falsely with sarcasm as his eyes shifted from side to side.

" Okay, kids," Maggie waddled up to the small group, with Ace still in the carrier. " It's time to go home. Say

good-bye to your little friend now." Everyone said good-bye to Doris, except for Ace, who was asleep, again,

and Kowalski, who remained hidden behind his clipboard. " Good-bye, Linda," Maggie waved as the family

started leaving. " And thanks for taking care of Skipper's leg."

" No problem," Linda shouted mirthfully. " Take care of that new baby, Ace, now. You hear me?"

" We will," Juan shouted back. As soon as they had left Linda's office, Kowalski lowered his clipboard with

relief and began drawing on it, again. This time, he was trying to figure out ways to avoid Doris, after she

arrives in the sixth grade class next week. Occasionally, he glanced away from his plans to look at the stairs

below him as he and his family made their way down them, to avoid tripping and falling.

In about a few seconds, the penguin family was on the ground and waddling back towards their habitat. The

parents, along with Ace, were ahead of Rico, Skipper, and Kowalski, but only by a few feet.

Skipper, who was still trying to get used to using his crutches, while trying to keep up with Rico and

Kowalski, started griping. " These crutches hurt my flipper pits," he groaned. " How could something that

somebody is supposed to use for walking with a fractured leg or whatever, be so irritating?"

" Crutches are irritating," Kowalski raised his voice questionably as he lifted his head up from his clipboard

and looked over at Skipper. " Try dealing with Doris for a few seconds. Now that's irritating."

" Try spending eight years with a know-it-all genius," Skipper joked. " Now that's even more irritating."

" Yeah. I see what you mean about," Kowalski started to agree then realized what was just said. " Hey!"

" Just kidding," Skipper retorted with a chuckle. " But you do act like a know-it-all genius, though."

" Okay," Kowalski lowered his clipboard to one of his sides, dangling it like a school book. " Two can play at

this game. Try spending your whole life with someone who is really bossy, doesn't know when to swallow

their pride, and is too stubborn to listen to reason."

" Wow. That would be annoying," Skipper uttered agreeably as Kowalski's words flew directly over his head.

" I meant you, Skipper," Kowalski slapped his forehead with his flipper. " Gosh. How you made it into middle

school, is beyond me."

" Are you saying that I'm dumb," Skipper stopped hopping and folded his flippers, while still remaining on the

crutches. He narrowed his eyes at his sibling. Kowalski stopped waddling and turned to Skipper, letting Rico

get ahead of them.

" I'm not saying that you're dumb," Kowalski squeaked. " I'm saying that you don't pay attention to anything

important."

" Kowalski," Skipper grumbled. " Who is the military commander in our games and wins the matches, every

time we play?"

" You do," Kowalski groaned as he rolled his eyes then focused them back on his oldest brother. " But that's

beside the point. Those are just games. This is real life that we're dealing with here and it's serious."

" Yeah? So," Skipper raised an unwillingly eyebrow.

" So, you can't always win," Kowalski raised his clipboard and drew on a clean page. After he was done

drawing, he showed it to Skipper. " Here. I'll use probability to demonstrate what I mean. If you have one

blue marble, two green marbles, and five purple marbles. Let's say that you wanted a blue marble. Okay? So,

what is the probability of you getting a blue marble?"

" Kowalski," Skipper growled. " Could you please not bug me with math at this hour. I'm exhausted." He

began hopping toward the group, again, which was now twenty feet in front of him and Kowalski.

Kowalski watched then waddled up to the left of Skipper as fast as he could. " Just give me the probability,

please," he urged after he caught up with Skipper. " Look. I know that math is not your thing, or anything

school related for that matter, but the answer is simple and it demonstrates a very valuable life lesson."

Skipper thought about the problem for a moment then gave up right away. " I haven't the slightest clue,

Kowalski" he retorted with uncertainty and frustration in his voice. " This probability problem is like gibberish

to me."

" Well, if you did your homework and paid attention in class like I did, you wouldn't be in this jam, now would

you," Kowalski stared at Skipper with a raised eyebrow.

" Okay. I see your point about me not paying attention to anything important," Skipper stated sarcastically. "

So, what's the answer?"

" I'm not going to tell you," Kowalski slightly raised his voice. " You can figure this one out on your own."

" Oh, come on," Skipper huffed impatiently. " Please?"

" Why should I," Kowalski scoffed as he folded his flippers.

" Because I'm your older brother and I'm sort of the boss of you," Skipper stated sternly as he and Kowalski

entered the sewer entrance to the penguin habitat and began waddling toward the door. " Now spill."

" Technically, since Momma and Daddy are around and still raising us, you can't boss me around, unless you

have to baby-sit," Kowalski stated in a matter-of-fact tone. Suddenly, both penguins stopped at the door to

the hallway. The other penguins had already gone inside long before they had even arrived.

" Must you always be such a downer on me," Skipper snapped as he turned his body towards Kowalski.

" No," Kowalski snapped back as he turned his body towards Skipper. " Must you always be such a jerk to

me?"

" No," Skipper yelled. " Downer!"

" Jerk," Kowalski grunted.

" Downer," Skipper's voice cracked.

" Jerk," Kowalski screamed.

" You know, Kowalski? Momma and Daddy were going to give me a pet gila monster, which I've always

wanted, but they brought you home instead," Skipper scolded. " That was a mistake!"

" You know, Skipper," Kowalski put his flippers on his hips, feeling both hurt and infuriated. " You can't

always get what you want. Just like how I want a brother, who I could look up to for support and guidance.

But I didn't get that, now did I? So, I guess we're both unhappy!" He stomped over to the hallway door. It

was cracked open, so Kowalski pushed it, waddled through, and slammed the door behind him, leaving

Skipper alone in the sewer.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Whoa! I cannot believe that Skipper just said that. BTW: Skipper was really foolish, selfish, and did a lot of other idiotic things as a child. As for Kowalski, he just doesn't understand that Doris has a crush on him. LOL. Anyways. Coming up next in Chapter 6. Catch Skipper's reaction after Kowalski slammed the door. Please stay tuned and find out more. BTW: I will be leaving sometime between August 5th and the 6th for a family road trip. I should be back sometime between the 14th and the 16th. So, I'll update as much as I can, until then. Thank-you for reading this message.


	6. Chapter 6

" Days with the Down Feathers"

Thanks for the reviews everyone. They were awesome. Sorry it took so long to update, but I've been busy. Now here's the next chapter. BTW: This chapter is most likely to be revised, again. Please enjoy.

Chapter 6

Skipper stood there, watching the door. Suddenly guilt over took him and he hopped up to it. He was

about to knock on it with one of his crutches to get inside, when his father opened the door. He was not

looking at all pleased. " Skipper," Juan folded his flippers. " Can I speak to you alone? Out here?"

Skipper gulped in fear. He knew what this was going to be about. " Sure," Skipper shook nervously. " What's

up?"

" It's about Kowalski," Juan waddled through the door then closed it. " How could you say that to him,

Skipper? To have a brother is more than just having someone around to yell at or annoy you. It's about

looking out for each other, being there for each other, trust, respect, and responsibility."

" And this speech relates to Kowalski, how," Skipper curiously raised an eyebrow.

" Well, by saying what you've said to him," he stated sternly. " You made him lose his trust and respect for

you, in the process."

" I had no idea I did that," Skipper whispered as he lowered his head then raised his voice a little. "

Kowalski's right. I am a jerk."

" Look," Juan put his flipper on Skipper's shoulder. " If it makes you feel better, I used to be an older brother

at one time and a complete jerk."

" You were," Skipper squawked curiously as he looked up at his father.

" Yes," Juan looked back at him. " And I did the same thing you did by yelling at my brother and saying the

wrong things."

" How did your brother react," Skipper's voice cracked.

" Almost the same way as Kowalski did, except my brother punched me in the stomach," Juan took his free

flipper to the bottom of his beak, thinking. " He had major anger issues, almost like he had missed his shot

for Distemper. I believe he had a fear of needles."

" Did anything happen after that," Skipper stared at his father, getting more interested.

" The only thing that happened after that was that he was taken away by the zoo keepers, all because he

took his anger at me, out on them," Juan then sighed. " And I never saw him, again. I just hope that he was

transferred to another zoo and not to Antarctica like your mother's twin brother Nigel."

" What's wrong with Antarctica," Skipper questioned.

" Leopard seals," Juan stated, feeling a bit surprised. " Wow. Kowalski was right about you not paying

attention in school."

" When is he not right about me," Skipper grumbled then paused, looking down at his feet. " I owe the nerdy

knucklehead an apology. Don't I?"

" Yes. Now come on," he moved to the side of Skipper, opened the door, and guided him through it. After

going through the door, the two penguins went down the hallway, and through the opened door to the

bunkroom. Once they were inside the bunkroom, Juan closed the door and pointed Skipper toward Kowalski's

direction. He was lying down in the very top bunk with his flippers folded and staring furiously down at his

feet. " He's right up there."

" How am I suppose to get up there, when I have a cast on my leg," Skipper growled as he hopped toward

the bunks. " Unless, Kowalski did that on purpose to avoid me."

" Or maybe because this is my bed," Kowalski shouted from his bunk, glaring down at Skipper.

" Listen," Skipper began slowly. " I thought about what you said and you were right."

" Right about what," Kowalski leaned over the edge, raising an eyebrow.

" About me and being a jerk to you," Skipper stuttered as he tapped his flippers on the grip bars of the

crutches.

" I'm listening," Kowalski pulled out his clipboard and pencil, without Skipper noticing, and prepared to write.

" Go on."

" I haven't thought about it recently, or at all, for that matter," Skipper stumbled. " But I haven't been a very

good brother to you."

" And Rico," Kowalski stopped drawing what Skipper had said. " Don't forget Rico."

" Well, I guess Rico, too," Skipper looked down at the ground. " But I haven't been nearly as terrible of a

brother to him as I was to you. I said things that I shouldn't have and I'm…I'm…" He began shaking

nervously. Suddenly, Rico waddled up behind him, from over by the table, and slapped Skipper on the back,

making him grunt out the words. " Sorry."

" Apology accepted," Kowalski smiled acceptingly then finished writing drawing on his clipboard. " By the way,

I'm keeping a written document your apology on my clipboard."

" You're keeping a written document of my apology," Skipper raised an eyebrow as he looked up at him. "

Why?"

" I'm keeping track of how often you act like a good brother," Kowalski stated then stuffed his clipboard

underneath his pillow.

" Okay. That's a new hobby for you," Skipper rolled his eyes then focused back on Kowalski. " Kowalski, do

you think you can come down here, please? Because, I can't really climb, seeing that I have a fractured leg."

" Oh, all right," Kowalski crawled out of his bunk and climbed down the ladder. After he had gotten down the

ladder and jumped on the floor, he and Skipper both stared at each other. Suddenly, the two brothers gave

each other hugs. Soon, Rico had joined in from behind and wrapped a flipper around each brother. This was

long before he had gotten the " gooey love mush sensitivity" that he has now.

" Kowalski," Skipper muttered, still hugging his tall brother. " If I ever act like a jerk to you, again. Don't

hesitate to slap me."

" That won't work," Kowalski chuckled as Rico listened in on their conversation. " That'll just make you slap

me back. Then we'll end up fighting, again."

" Oh? Right," Skipper recalled. " Good point." Soon, the brothers all stopped hugging and released each other

from their flippers. Next, Skipper and Kowalski performed " Brotherly love, flipper shakes", singling out Rico,

again. Rico sighed as he lowered his head. He really wanted to join his brothers. Skipper and Kowalski

noticed Rico's expression, ceased what they were doing then began teaching their second to the youngest

brother the flipper shake.

About a few times, the two elder brothers either got slapped in the face by accident, Rico would miss their

flippers, or Rico would slap their flippers too hard, causing them to shake them in pain. After a while, Rico

finally got the hang of it and was now able to join his brothers in the " Brotherly love, flipper shake". When

they were done with their flipper shake, the boys decided to gather the materials that they were going to

use to make Ace's gift. First, the boys waddled up to their father and asked him politely to open the door.

After he opened the door for them, the three little penguins went into the hallway to get the box that was

dropped on the floor. Rico picked up the box first, took it into the bunkroom, with his brothers not following

too far behind, and sat it down on the table. Next, Kowalski climbed the ladder, which led up to the platform,

and went to grab one of the left over fish, but they had already gone rotten and began to stink. Kowalski

went back down into the bunkroom then checked the inside of the mini fridge, which was located around the

corner, not too far from Ace's crib. To his surprise, he had found a dried out, week-old fish, sitting in the back,

inside of a ziplock bag. Apparently, the parents had forgotten to clean out the fridge for the past month,

since they were both taking turns incubating Ace.

Kowalski examined the fish and took it out of the fridge. Next, he set it down on the table then went to go

get some tools out of his Daddy's toolbox, which was located back in the hallway closet, on the top shelf.

Juan followed him to help get the toolbox down safely. Skipper, who was mostly watching, hopped over to

the far corner of the room, picked up his backpack with one of his crutches, unzipped one of the pockets

on the sides, and pulled out a small bottle Elmer's Glue.

" Wow," Skipper surprisingly stared at the bottle, with a raised eyebrow as he examined the faded label on

it. " I haven't used this glue since kindergarten."

" Kindergarten," Maggie curiously raised an eyebrow as she looked up at him. She had heard him from across

the room, while she was tending to Ace in his crib."Why?"

________________________________________________________________________________________

Yay! Skipper and Kowalski are getting along, again. Aww. They finally taught Rico the " Brotherly love, flipper shake". Anyways. Coming up next in Chapter 7. Catch Skipper's answer to his mother's question. Please stay tuned and find out more. BTW: I will be leaving on the family roadtrip on Thursday, August 6th and won't be back until sometime on August 14th. So, Chapter 7 won't be up until sometime after I get back. Thank-you for reading this message and thank-you for your patience.


	7. Chapter 7

" Days with the Down Feathers"

Hey everyone. I'm finally back from the roadtrip. Actually, I've been back since Saturday, August 15th, but I wanted to recharge from the long journey, before continuing to the next chapter. Anyways. Thanks for your patience and reviews. They were awesome. Now here's the next chapter. Please enjoy. Warning: I may revise this chapter, again. BTW: If there are words missing in parts of the story, it was either supposed to be typed like that or Document Manager deleted them. Thank-you for reading this message.

Chapter 7

" No reason," Skipper's voice cracked with a squeak in it as he hesitated. " I just didn't really need it

anymore."

" You mean that you've stopped eating it, after I told you what it could do to you," Maggie stated with a

smile. Rico, who was relaxing at the table, could not help, but chuckle at his oldest brother. He had no idea

that he used to be a paste eater in Kindergarten.

" What are you laughing at me for? You're the one who likes to eat everything," Skipper glanced at Rico as he

set his backpack down and hopped back over with the glue bottle wedged between his flipper and the grip

bar. He set it down on the table and waited patiently with Rico, until Kowalski and Juan returned with the

tools.

After they had returned with the tools, the parents and the boys began to work on Ace's present. It took

them about an hour or two to put it together, but it was worth making it. When they thought they were

finished making it, they looked at it and noticed that something was missing. It was the inscription label.

Without hesitation, Juan dug out a small, blank label, out of the box and set it down on the table.

" So what is it that you boys want the label to say," Juan questioned as he dug out some inscription tools

and looked at the boys.

" "Private's First Prize"," Rico shouted out loud. The whole room grew silent for a moment.

" How about "To our newest baby brother, Ace," Kowalski put his flipper up in the air and moved it to the

right. " We salute you"."

" Kowalski," Maggie gently spoke up as she glanced at the inscription label. " I'm afraid that all of that won't

be able to fit onto here. Do you have a shorter version, perhaps?"

" To our newest baby brother, Ace," Kowalski smiled with a shrug.

" Alright. Thank-you," Juan then looked over at Skipper, who was busy scratching underneath his cast-

covered leg with a flat-headed screwdriver, which he had swiped from the toolbox a few seconds, ago. The

itch was irritating him so much that he just could not stand ignoring it, anymore. "What about you Skipper,"

he questioned. " Any ideas?"

" The only idea that I have is " To Private Ace"," Skipper set the screwdriver back in the toolbox after he was

done scratching.

" That's it," Juan raised an eyebrow.

" Yep," Skipper retorted as another itch formed underneath his cast. He swiftly grabbed the screwdriver, that

he had used before, and began scratching, again. Soon, the brother's continued talking then began to argue

about what to put on the inscription label, until an idea popped up.

" Hey," Kowalski spoke up with a smile. " How about we put all of the stuff that we want to say on Ace's gift?"

" Kowalski that's a brilliant idea, but," Maggie smiled, but her voice trailed off as she was interrupted.

" But, this is the only good inscription label that I have left," Juan jumped in. " All of the other's are either

dented beyond repair, snapped in half, or have words on them, which I had messed up on when I was first

learning how to inscribe."

" Oh," Kowalski stated, glumly. " Then how are we supposed to decide then?"

" " Rock, Paper, Scissors"," Skipper suggested with a devious grin as he set the screwdriver down, on the

table.

" I don't think so," Kowalski huffed as he folded his flippers. " Besides, each time we play that game we claim

each other as cheaters and wind up in three way ties, everytime. How about a trivia game?"

" You do know that I hate games like that, right," Skipper raised an irritated eyebrow as he folded his

flippers, too.

" Only because you can't win at them," Kowalski snapped. " And do you want to know why?"

" Don't go there, again, Kowalski," Skipper pointed one of his flippers at Kowalski.

" It's because you don't study, Skipper," Kowalski growled, but at the same time felt concerned about his

brother's lack of concentration in school, except in gym, of course. Skipper was more focused in that class

than anything else that the zoo school had to offer.

" Oh, you went there, again," Skipper snarled, feeling more irritated. " And by the way, no trivia."

" Milk chug," Rico shouted, cheerfully as he threw his arms up into the air.

" Sorry, Rico," Maggie softly stated. " Not after what happened last time."

Rico groaned, mournfully. " Hey! That's not such a bad idea," Skipper smiled as he turned to Kowalski, no

longer feeling angry at him.

" I agree with you there, Skipper," Kowalski nodded his head, forgetting about the argument that had just

happened.

" Kids," Juan butted in with a firm voice. " Your mother already told you no."

" Come on," Skipper uttered then clasped his flippers together. " Please?"

" Pretty please," Kowalski gave pleading eyes as he also clasped his flippers together." We promise not to

puke on the floor this time."

Rico chuckled a little. " Puke," he made fake gagging sounds, which caused everybody at the table to stare at

him. Rico noticed it, stopped what he was doing, and clasped his flippers together as well. " Promise. No

puke," he stated, sincerely. Skipper and Kowalski kept their flippers together and turned back to stare at

their parents, along with Rico. Each of them held a huge, but not creepy or annoying, wide smile.

Eventually, the sad, puppy dog eyes got to the parents. " Alright," Maggie sighed. " But, please do the milk

chugging contest outside. I don't want Ace waking up to it."

The three brothers looked at each other with widened eyes, cheered, and ran or hopped over to the fridge.

Kowalski was the first to reach it. He opened the door and grabbed a one-gallon jug of milk, which was

located on the very top shelf. After that, Rico and Kowalski climbed up the ladder, to the fish bowl entrance,

with Skipper being carried up by Rico. Once they had reached the platform of the habitat, they realized that

they had forgotten to grab some important items. Rico, without hesitation, quickly dashed inside the habitat

and brought out three, plastic, sixteen ounce glasses, along with some barf bags. He handed his two

brothers one of each item. Kowalski poured the fluid into each of the glasses, all the way up to the rim. From

there, the chugging contest began.

About a few seconds later, Kowalski was the first one out, leaving the contest between Skipper and Rico.

Apparently, Kowalski forgot to pace himself, while he was chugging the milk and had to grab his bag,

immediately. After his stomach had calmed down, he returned his attention to his brothers, who were both

determined to win. Skipper was trying to win against Rico, by trying to get to the bottom of his glass, before

he did. Rico, who was not intimidated by this, chugged down the milk, just like he did with his fluids everyday,

and got closer and closer to the bottom of his glass, every time he swallowed. He was actually a head of

Skipper at this point, until the contest started to become neck and neck, with eight ounces to go.

Soon, all was going quite well for Skipper now. He had finally managed to get in the lead of Rico. There were

only four ounces left in his cup, while Rico was just halfway. Skipper was just about to win, until he

got nauseous and grabbed his barf bag. As soon as Skipper had upchucked in his bag, the contest was all

over and Rico had won.

After Rico had won, the three brothers went inside and told the parents about the results. Once that was all

over, Juan inscribed " Private's First Prize" onto the inscription label and attached it to the plaque, just

underneath the fish. When that was done, he grabbed a small hinge, some small screws, and a screwdriver.

From there, he attached the hinge to the left side of the plague and hung it on the wall, diagonal from the

bunks. Apparently, they had magnets installed inside of the walls, in their habitat, so they could hang things

on them. After everything was all finished and tidied up, the entire family went outside, to swim in the pool,

except for Ace, who was too young to learn how to swim, and Juan, who volunteered to watch the baby first,

while Maggie watched and played with the three elder boys in the pool. They were playing " Marco Polo", with

Maggie yelling " Marco" and the boys yelling " Polo".

All was going great for the penguin family during the time that they were outside playing. No

more arguments, messes, injuries, nothing horrible. That is, until one of the workers at the zoo came over by

the penguins' habitat. " So," a young, redheaded woman uttered into a walkie-talkie as she looked at the

penguins from the outside. " You're saying that we now have to get rid of two penguins now?"

" That's right, Alice," the voice on the other side of the walkie-talkie stated. " According to the zoo records,

the penguin habitat is only supposed to hold a maximum of four penguins and we just barely got by with five.

Plus, the head boss threatened to shut this place down if we did not keep at or below the maximum

occupancy of the pens. So, go grab a couple of cages and get to work. I'm not paying you to sit around and

breathe air."

" You don't pay me at all," Alice rolled her eyes. " I'm a volunteer. Remember?" She shut off the walkie-talkie

and went to go grab some cages. This was before she had started to act really crazy. Plus, she had only

been volunteering at the zoo for a few weeks and was in training to become a zookeeper.

Meanwhile, the penguin family was still swimming in the pool and playing their game. About, thirty minutes

later, the family climbed out onto the platform. Soon, Alice had come back with two cages and a wooden

plank. She sat the plank down to where she could walk over to the penguins' platform. The penguins all

watched her with curious eyes as she made her way over to them. After Alice had gotten across, she sat the

two cages down onto the platform and pulled out her walkie-talkie. " Okay," she muttered into it as she

raised an eyebrow. " I've got the cages that you asked for, but which two penguins do you want me to take

out of here?"

________________________________________________________________________________________

Oh,no! Two penguins have to be taken away? No!!! Anyways. Coming up next in Chapter 8. Find out which two penguins get taken away. Also. See how the other penguins in the family react to the situation. Please stay tuned and find out more. BTW: I start school on Monday, August 24 and will have a lot of classwork to work on starting from that day. I have no idea how often I will be able to update. I'm guessing between once a week to once a month, or just on weekends. IDK. I will have to base it off of how much homework and free time I actually have. Thank-you for reading this message.


	8. Chapter 8

" Days with the Down Feathers"

Thanks for the reviews everyone. They were awesome. Whew. I finally found time to update this story. I was starting to go crazy. LOL. Now here's the next chapter. Please enjoy. BTW: I may revise this chapter, again.

Chapter 8

" I don't care," the voice on the other side of the walkie-talkie, snapped. " As long as there are four penguins

or less, the boss is happy."

" But, Sir, there are two adult penguins and four baby ones," Alice whined.

" Hmm," the voice pondered. " How about you take the adults? They've been here ever since day one, plus

the audience absolutely loves baby penguins, anyway."

" I don't know," Alice stated skeptically as she rubbed the back of her head with her free hand. " One of them

just barely hatched and has it's down feathers. Are you sure you don't want me to take two of the elder

babies or at least one baby and one adult, instead?"

" No," the voice scoffed. " Just take the two adults out of there. I'm sure that the younger penguins will take

care of the newly hatched one."

" But they're all boys," Alice squeaked. " And the only one that ever regurgitates anything is the third oldest

one. Which is strange, by the way."

" What about the elder chick," the voice questioned, curiously. " I'm sure that after the others arrived, he'd

know what to do."

" But he has a broken leg," Alice looked over at Skipper and jumped. " Wait a minute. A broken leg! And he

went swimming with it? How did he manage to…Uh, Sir? I've got to go."

" But, Alice," she shut off the walkie-talkie, before he could finish, and reached down to pick up Skipper, but

he dropped his crutches, limped, and hid behind his parents.

" Come on little one," Alice stated in a gentle tone. " I just want to take a look at your boo-boo, that's all."

Skipper shook his head at her. " Oh, fine," she scoffed. " Have it your way." Alice groaned. " But, you had

better say good-bye to your parents, because I have to take them away soon." All of the penguins widened

their eyes with shock. Neither of them wanted to be separated from each other.

The penguins then looked at one another with saddened expressions. Soon, Juan began speaking. "

Everybody," he shouted. " Into the water! Now!" They all ran to the water and dived into it, before Alice

could get a hold of them. Alice remained on the platform, waiting for the penguins to surface, but decided to

leave to grab some nets.

Meanwhile, the penguins remained under the water as they watched Alice leave. Maggie held Ace closely in

one of her flippers, to help keep him warm, while Skipper, who should not have been swimming with a

fractured leg in the first place, grabbed on to one of his dad's flippers for extra support. Then, when all was

clear, the penguin family surfaced to the top of the water and climbed out onto the platform.

" Daddy," Kowalski stuttered as he waddled up to his father. " Why was that human trying to take you and

Momma away?"

" I don't know, Kowalski," Juan shook his head. " But, I do know that you kids are far too young to be here

without a responsible adult penguin around to look after you."

" And you're also far too young to be left here to take care of the baby, all by yourselves," Maggie stated, still

carrying Ace in her flippers. " Which is why your father and I are going do whatever we can to stay here and

hide for as long as we can. And if anything happens to us, contact your Uncle Nigel. He can help. By the way,

his frequency code should be towards the very top of the walkie-talkie list, so you can get a hold of him, just

in case."

" But, he lives a million-zillion miles away in Antiqua," Skipper whined as Rico handed him his crutches, which

were on the edge of the platform.

" It's pronounced Antarctica and it is approximately 10,000 miles from our current location," Kowalski

corrected him with a smug grin.

" Whatever," Skipper grumbled. Suddenly, without warning, Alice came back to the penguin habitat and

threw the nets over the mother and father penguin, capturing them, along with Ace. Next, Alice put the

parent penguins each into separate cages and removed Ace from Maggie's flippers and set him down on the

platform, before latching the cage doors shut. Skipper, who was still terrified of Alice, reacted naturally and

hopped toward his parents' cages, trying to break them out, but he was not strong enough, yet. " It won't

budge," he grunted as he struggled with the latch on his mother's cage. He then whistled for Kowalski and

Rico to come help. They waddled over to him as fast as they could, leaving Ace unattended for a while.

Unfortunately, they could not get over to Skipper in time, seeing that Alice had picked up the two cages and

began walking away, with Skipper still hanging onto the latch of his mother's cage.

" Okay, little fella," Alice smiled sweetly at him before walking across the plank. " Let go." Skipper shook his

head at her, again. " Come on. Please? You know you have to live without them sometime." The penguin still

shook his head. Alice rolled her eyes at him. " And everybody calls me stubborn," she then turned her eyes

back to Skipper. " Look. I'm sorry, but it's my job. I was told to do this." Suddenly, Rico and Kowalski jumped

up toward the cages. Rico grabbed on to Juan's cage, while Kowalski helped Skipper with Maggie's. Together,

the five of them were so heavy that Alice had to set the cages down. Next, she grabbed the nets, which she

had set in her back pockets, and scooped up the three baby penguins, that were all fighting to open the

latches. After that, she set the nets, upside with the penguins still inside, grabbed the cages with the

parents in them, and walked across the plank. As soon as she got across the plank, she set the cages down,

walked back to platform, removed the nets off of the baby penguins, and went back to the outside of their

habitat. Right after she was on the outside of the penguin habitat, she grabbed the plank before any of the

other penguins could follow.

" Kids," the parents shouted in unison as Alice picked them up and began to walk off, again.

" Momma! Daddy," Skipper, Rico, and Kowalski shouted back. Ace just sat on the platform, reached his

flippers outward, and began crying. Suddenly, the three elder brothers dived into the pool, swam up to the

end of their habitat, and tried slipping through the bars that wrapped around it, but they were all too big to

squeeze through.

" Blast," Skipper shouted as he kept trying to squeeze through the bars, with his fractured leg. " Kowalski?

Options?"

" Would it kill you to say please, every once in a while," Kowalski complained as he also kept squeezing

through the bars. Although, Kowalski was the thinnest of the penguins, he still could not get through to the

other side.

" Yes," Skipper replied, sarcastically then accidentally leaned on his bad leg, almost losing his balance. " Ow!"

" Okay," Kowalski stopped and thought for a moment. " How about we use the sewer entrance?"

" Kowalski," Skipper sighed. " I can name one thing wrong with that option."

" And what's that," Kowalski raised an eyebrow.

" Momma and Daddy told us not to perform stunts without adult supervision," Skipper retorted.

" Now you choose to pay attention," Kowalski scoffed then groaned. " Look. Forget about what Momma and

Daddy told us about that. Right now. We've got to rescue them."

" Okay," Skipper moaned in defeat as Kowalski suddenly took charge. The three penguins rushed back to the

platform, grabbed Ace, ran inside, put Ace in his crib, and went to the door, which led to the sewer entrance.

Skipper looked up at the door before speaking. " Alright," he looked over at his brothers. " Pyramid, team."

His brothers looked at him, worriedly. " What," he shrugged as his voice cracked.

" You have a fractured leg, Skipper," Kowalski explained, trying to be reasonable. " We can't perform the

pyramid. I'm afraid you'll have to sit this one out, while Rico and I do a shoulder stand to open the door.

Okay?"

" Okay," Skipper narrowed his eyes and put his flippers on his hips. " Okay? Kowalski, if I can swim with a

fractured leg, above water, just fine, then I can stunt with a fractured leg, just fine. Alright?"

" But, Skipper," Kowalski stuttered then Skipper pointed a flipper at him.

" Don't but, Skipper, me, Kowalski," Skipper snapped. Rico laughed at what Skipper had just said. " I can do

this in my sleep," he stated. " Just you watch."

" Look we don't have time for this," Kowalski snapped back. " The longer we stand here, arguing the sooner

we're going to lose our parents. So just shut your beak and cooperate. Look, Skipper, please forgive me for

being rude to you and completely taking over the job of leader here, but I'm just as stressed out as you are

about all of this. I'm not ready to be separated from Momma and Daddy either."

" You aren't," Skipper raised an eyebrow.

" No," Kowalski scoffed. " So what do you say? Will you sit this one out, just once? After all, Ace will need

someone to watch him during the rescue mission, plus the Penguin Code clearly states that in the event that

the leader is injured or ill, the second in command must take control, until the first in command has

recovered."

________________________________________________________________________________________

Oh. No. The parents have been taken away. ( Panics) What should we do? What should we do?( normal) Sorry. I just had to do that. Anyways. Coming up next in Chapter 9. Catch Skipper's answer to Kowalski's question. Also, find out whether or not the parents get rescued from Alice. Please stay tuned and find out more. BTW: I do not know when I'll be able to update, again, seeing that I'm going to have mountains of homework to do. So please bare with me. Thank-you for reading this message and thank-you for your patience.


	9. Chapter 9

" Days with the Down Feathers"

Thanks for the reviews everyone. They were fantastic. Now here's the next chapter. Please enjoy and thank-you for you patience. Warning: Chapter may be revised, again.

Chapter 9

" Okay," Skipper retorted. " I'll stay behind and watch Ace, while you two commence Operation: Rescue

Momma and Daddy." Rico and Kowalski nodded at him then got into a shoulder stand, with Kowalski on top.

Kowalski turned the doorknob, opened the door then jumped off of Rico's shoulders. Next the penguin

brothers saluted each other and ran off, leaving Skipper behind to take care of Ace. About a half an hour

later, Rico and Kowalski returned with saddened expressions on their faces. Skipper, who was now cradling

Ace in his flippers and rocking him, while leaning against the crib, along with his crutches, looked over at his

returning brothers. He hastily hopped over to them. " Any luck," Skipper questioned then looked at their

faces.

" We failed," Kowalski mumbled, quietly. " We tried to stop that human. We really did, but one of the other

humans snatched us and stuck us back in here. Before we knew it Momma and Daddy were taken away by a

metal, transporting machine and vanished without a trace."

" Vanished," Skipper squeaked, worriedly and shrugged. " Vanished like how?"

" We lost track of the direction the metal, transporting device was going," Kowalski started to sniffle. " After

that…" Suddenly, he and Rico wrapped their flippers around Skipper and started to bawl their eyes out. "

We're sorry we failed the mission," Kowalski sobbed. " Please forgive us."

" Kowalski," Skipper held back his tears as he wrapped one of his flippers around both of his bawling

brothers, in a half hug, while supporting Ace with the other. " It's okay. We did all that we could to rescue

them. Now come on. Let's contact Uncle Nigel, so we can get his tail feathers over here to help take care of

us."

" Okay," Kowalski sniffled as he wiped a tear from his eye.

Soon, the brothers let go of each other then went up to the walkie-talkie. They all stared at it. Trying to

figure out how to get it to work. " Now what did Momma tell us to do, again," Skipper scratched the top of his

head with his free flipper, starting to feel stressed all of a sudden. " Oh, yeah." He pressed a random button

on the walkie-talkie.

About a few moments later, somebody responded. " Bonjour," a soft French woman's voice blared through

the speaker. " Bonjour?"

" Bonjour," Rico repeated back, happily.

" Hello," Kowalski grabbed the walkie-talkie. " Uncle Nigel? Listen we…" The woman gasped as she heard

squawking coming from her walkie-talkie. She thought it was somebody pulling a prank then shut it off. "

Hello," Kowalski stated then shrugged. " Must have been the incorrect code." He then looked up at a list of

frequency codes and located the one that connected to their Uncle Nigel's walkie-talkie. " Ah-hah," Kowalski

smirked then punched in the code.

It took several minutes, but a male's voice had finally answered the walkie-talkie. " Hello," the voice stated,

cheerfully in a deep British accent. " This is Nigel the penguin's residence. May I ask who's calling?"

" Hi, Uncle Nigel," Kowalski smiled, glad to hear a familiar voice. " This is Skipper, Rico, Ace, and Kowalski."

" Oh my, goodness," Uncle Nigel gasped. " Maggie's and Juan's kids?"

" Yes, Maggie's and Juan's kids. Who else's kids would we be," Skipper stated, grouchily as his feelings from

his parents getting taken away started to eat at him. He was still trying to refrain him self from crying about

it, but it was backfiring. Ace, who had sensed Skipper's stress, began wailing.

" Skipper," Kowalski snapped as he took Ace from Skipper's flipper and cradled him in his. " Look at what

you've done."

" What I've done," Skipper snapped back. " He was fine a minute, ago."

" Skipper," Kowalski glared at his brother, trying to keep calm. " You may not now this, but babies can sense

feelings from others easily that can make them cry. And if I'm not mistaken, I'd say that you being uptight

about Momma and Daddy being taking away has caused him to do this."

" Uptight," Skipper growled, defensively. " I'm not being uptight. And another thing…"

" Now kids," Uncle Nigel's voice stuttered. " Don't get your knickers in a twist. Now, tell your dear old Uncle

Nigel what happened."

The kids stopped arguing then relaxed before speaking. " Humans took our parents," they all bawled out

simultaneously, except for Ace, who just cried.

" Humans, eh," Nigel retorted, thoughtfully. " I knew they were trouble. Once they have one taste of blood

they come back for more."

" They're going to eat our parents," Kowalski squealed, worriedly.

" That's disgusting," Skipper's voice cracked.

" Blood," Rico raised an eyebrow.

" No," Nigel retorted, defensively. " They're not going to eat your parents. They're just transferring them to

another area is all."

" Oh," the three responded, suddenly feeling silly.

" Let me guess," Nigel began, curiously. " Your mother asked me to come take care of you kids, if something

went wrong. Am I right?"

" Affirmative," Skipper responded, feeling much better now that he had finally cried.

" Alright then," Nigel responded with joy in his voice. " I'll be up at the Central Park Zoo sometime tomorrow

or the day after. Bye." He shut off his walkie-talkie. On the other side, the boys shut off their walkie-talkie

and turned to each other.

" Well," Skipper shrugged. " Now that that's out of the way. What should we do?"

" I say we stay here and don't go anywhere, except to zoo school and back," Kowalski suggested.

" Scary movies," Rico cheered.

" No scary movies," Skipper jumped. " Those bore me to death."

" How about we go constellation hunting," Kowalski smiled, but frowned when everyone just stared at him

blankly. " Or not. How about we check our homework? Except, Rico and Ace. Of, course."

" But it's Saturday," Skipper whined.

" Yeah? So," Kowalski raised an eyebrow as he waddled over to put Ace in his crib and came back to where

his brothers were.

" I don't even do my homework until Sunday afternoon," Skipper squeaked then scoffed. " And as for

checking it? Forget it."

" Skipper," Kowalski slapped him self in the face. " Did you know that the sooner you get your homework

done and check it, the more time you have to relax not worrying about it?"

" You know," Skipper brought a flipper to his chin. " I've never thought of that, but I still like the idea of

waiting until Sunday."

" Just do your homework and check it," Kowalski grumbled. " It's not that difficult of a task to do."

" Who do you think you are," Skipper growled. " My father?" Upon hearing this, Rico slipped away from his

brothers and climbed into his bunk, which was right underneath where Kowalski slept and cried himself to

sleep. He was getting tired of his brothers arguing and what is worse, their parents were no longer there to

help keep the peace between them.

" No. I'm your sibling, who is the complete opposite of your personality and knows better," Kowalski snarled.

The emotions of losing their parents had come back to the elder brothers, right away.

" Oh? I'll show you who knows better," Skipper screamed as he lifted one of his crutches up at Kowalski. He

was going to hit his brother in the head with it, but was trying to restrain him self.

" Go ahead," Kowalski shrugged, angrily as he put his flippers up; knowing what Skipper was intending. " But

it's not going to make you or any of us feel better about this."

" I…can't," Skipper sighed as he slammed his crutch back down on the floor then sniffled. " I just can't. I'm s…

sorry, Kowalski. It's just that…" Before he could finish, he began bawling. Suddenly, he wrapped his flippers

around Kowalski for comfort.

Kowalski, who did not expect this, wrapped his flippers around Skipper. " I miss Momma and Daddy, too," he

whispered as tears formed in his eyes, again. " And I wish they were still here, but things happen for a

reason."

" Give me one," Skipper stopped crying then pulled back, rubbing his watery, irritated, eyes.

" Well, it gives us a chance to learn survival and trust skills, for one," Kowalski smiled. " Plus, it also gives us

each a chance to learn responsibility."

" Yeah," Skipper sniffled as he put a flipper to his beak. " You know? Daddy did mention something about

having to learn responsibility."

" See. There you go," Kowalski retorted then wiped the escaping tears from his eyes. " Now. Shall we make

peace, work on our homework, and forget this whole argument ever happened?"

________________________________________________________________________________________

Wow. I can't believe that Skipper almost did that. Whew. Glad he had a change of heart. Anyways. Coming up next in Chapter 10. Catch Skipper's answer to Kowalski's question. Also see how the penguins take care of themselves without their parents around. Please stay tuned and find out more. BTW: If anybody is out of character, I apologize for it.


	10. Chapter 10

" Days with the Down Feathers"

Thanks for the reviews everyone. They were fantastic. Anyways. Here's the next chapter. Please enjoy. BTW: It may be revised, again.

Chapter 10

" Alright," Skipper groaned. " But if I die, tell my girlfriend…it's over between us."

" What girlfriend," Kowalski raised an eyebrow. " I didn't know you had a girlfriend."

" You know that fox kit, who lives in that habitat, down the sidewalk from us," Skipper questioned.

" Which fox kit," Kowalski shrugged. " There's like eight of them living there."

" You know Jewel, from our class," Skipper raised an eyebrow. " The one with the pointy ears, the reddish fur

with orange highlights, and the face of an angel?"

" Yes," Kowalski nodded his head then paused. " Oh? You're dating one of the popular girls?"

" Yes," Skipper scoffed. " And now I'm going to break up with her."

" Why," Kowalski shrugged then spoke sarcastically. " I thought you enjoyed hanging out with the popular

crowd?"

" From all that's happened today," Skipper folded his flippers then smiled. " I've realized that family is more

important than being popular."

" So, you're saying that popularity means nothing to you now," Kowalski eyed his brother as he smiled back.

" Exactly," Skipper stated then paused with a frown. " I'm sorry about yelling at you and stuff."

" It's fine, Skipper," Kowalski nodded his head then looked down at Ace. He was already starting to fall

asleep in his arms.

Skipper glanced down at the baby as well. " Man," the penguin raised an eyebrow. " How much more sleep

does a baby need?"

" Approximately thirteen hours a day, I think," Kowalski retorted.

" You think or you know," Skipper glanced up at Kowalski.

" I think," Kowalski looked over at Skipper. " Come on. We should probably take a nap, before working on our

homework. It's been a long day."

" 10:4 on that," Skipper stated then yawned. " How about you, Rico? Are you ready for a nap? Rico?"

The two elder brothers glanced around the room and found Rico asleep in his bunk. About a few minutes

later, the others waddled over and put Ace in his crib. After that, Kowalski climbed into his own bunk, leaving

Skipper behind on the floor. Skipper, who eyeballed his bunk, which was between Rico's and his parents',

attempted to climb into it, but failed. The penguin sighed then climbed into his parents' bed instead.

Unfortunately, he could not get to sleep and eventually started tossing and turning, slighting causing his leg

to burn in pain. Kowalski, who could not get to sleep either, heard Skipper moving around. He sneaked out of

his bunk and climbed into the vacant one that his brother had tried to climb into earlier. The tall penguin then

peered his head, over the edge to look at Skipper. He was turned around, facing the wall of the bunk with

one of his parents' pillows wrapped tightly in his flippers as if he were holding a teddy bear.

" Can't sleep either, huh," Kowalski whispered, causing Skipper to turn his head toward his brother.

" Yeah," Skipper whispered back. " I've never slept in here by myself before without having Momma or Daddy

around to look after us. It's quiet. Too quiet."

" I know what you mean," Kowalski sighed. " And it's kind of scary, too, if you think about it. I mean, what if a

monster or something breaks in here and kidnaps us?"

" Kowalski," Skipper raised an eyebrow. " You don't by any chance still believe in the _Boogey Monster_, do

you?"

" No," Kowalski squeaked then shifted his eyes from side to side before returning his gaze to Skipper. " What

makes you say that?"

" Kowalski," Skipper grunted turning the rest of his body around. " Don't make me tickle you."

" Okay," Kowalski whimpered. " I still believe in the _Boogey Monster_. So what?"

" Kowalski, you're an eight year old genius who's attending the sixth grade and you're telling me that you're

still afraid of the Boogey Monster," Skipper squeaked.

" Yes," Kowalski slowly stated. Soon, Skipper bursted out snort laughing, causing Kowalski to blush.

" Kowalski," the penguin stopped chuckling. " Hello? There's no such thing as the _Boogey Monster_."

" Yes there is," Kowalski raised his voice a little. " It's just been renamed, that's all. I believe it's called _The _

_Dentist_."

" _The Dentist_," Skipper raised an eyebrow, skeptically then rolled his eyes and turned around. " Okay?

Goodnight."

" But Skipper, I'm, " Kowalski stuttered.

" I said goodnight," Skipper grumbled. Kowalski sighed then sank into the bunk that he was hanging from. He

laid down on his back and stared at the ceiling. About a few seconds later, he began sobbing. Skipper heard

it then turned around. " Okay," he groaned. " What is it this time?"

" I'm afraid," Kowalski sniffled.

" Well find a way that makes you not afraid," Skipper snapped.

" I can't," Kowalski screeched as he wiped the tears out of his eyes.

" What do you mean you can't," Skipper's voice cracked.

" Whenever I'm afraid, usually Momma sings me a lullaby, reads me a story, or bunks with me," Kowalski

retorted. " Like she used to do with you when you were my age."

" Ugh," Skipper groaned, irritably. " Can't you just count sheep or recite the _Periodic Table of Elements_ song in

your head?"

" No," Kowalski shook his head then paused. " Hey. How did you know about the _Periodic Table of Elements_

song? You were sick in bed that day."

" I don't know," Skipper squinted his eyes then widened them. " Oh, great spicy mustard. You're contagious."

" Not really," Kowalski rolled his eyes. " It's actually because we're related. You see? Since we are brothers,

we sometimes pick up on each other's brainwave frequencies. Unlike twins, the frequencies we pick up are

very rare."

" Wow," Skipper raised an eyebrow and smirked at him. " So, what am I thinking?"

" You're brainwaves say, I'm going to slap you into the middle of next week, if you don't stop talking to me

about this brainwave," Kowalski stopped before saying the final word then gasped. " Hey! That last word you

were thinking was very inappropriate. And it is not that. It is a fact."

" Uh-huh," Skipper stated, sarcastically as he rolled his eyes. " Whatever. Come on. Let's get some sleep

before Private wakes up."

" Okay," Kowalski slid back into the bunk. Fifteen minutes had gone by and he was still unable to sleep.

Eventually, he peered back down at Skipper. He was snoring as loud as a rocketship, taking off into space.

Kowalski took a deep breath and climbed into the bunk with him, realizing the risk that he was taking. A few

moments later, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

About ten minutes later, Skipper opened his eyes to find Kowalski right next to him. He jumped up and

smacked the top of his head on the ceiling of the bunk. " Ow," Skipper muttered to himself as he rubbed the

sore spot. Next, he leaned close to one of his brother's ears. " Kowalski." Kowalski did not respond. "

Kowalski," Skipper whispered fiercely then yelled. " Kowalski."

" Huh," Kowalski opened his eyes, followed by a snort. " What?"

" What do you think you're doing," Skipper snarled.

" I couldn't sleep," Kowalski shrugged after he sat up. " So I figured that if I crawled into the bunk with you,

I'd fall asleep in no time."

" Couldn't you have bunked with Rico, instead," Skipper growled.

" Rico wets the bed, plus he's a restless sleeper," Kowalski stated as he rubbed his right eye with his right

flipper.

" Good point," Skipper put a flipper to his beak then sighed. " Okay. You can bunk with me. Just try not to

squish my bad leg. Alright?" Kowalski nodded his head then laid back down. Skipper followed after, but chose

to face the wall. About a few minutes later, the two brothers drifted off to sleep, hoping things would become

better for them later on.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Kowalski's afraid of the _Boogey monster_, which he thinks is called _The Dentist?_ That explains a lot. Wow. Skipper has a girlfriend? That was a little unexpected. Anyways. Coming up next in Chapter 11. Find out what happens after the penguins wake up from their naps. Please stay tuned and find out more.


	11. Chapter 11

" Days with the Down Feathers"

Thanks for the reviews everyone. They were spectactular. Now here's the next chapter. Please enjoy and thank-you for your patience. Warning: Chapter may be revised, again.

Chapter 11

A couple of hours later, Kowalski and Skipper woke up to Ace's crying. Kowalski slipped out of the bunk to

see what it was that he needed. As soon as he got within flipper reach of the crib, he covered the holes on

the top of his beak. " Whoa," Kowalski almost fell backwards, ready to pass out. " Skipper, where does

Momma keep the diapers?"

" Under the crib," Skipper uttered as he grabbed his crutches and hopped out of the bunk. He limped over to

where his brothers were at and had to cover the top of his beak as well. " Whoa," he exclaimed. " He really

had to go."

" What was your first idea," Kowalski honked, sarcastically as he bent down and grabbed a diaper from

underneath the crib. " Uh, Skipper," He looked blankly at the fresh diaper. " Do you know how to change a

diaper?"

" Of course, Kowalski," Skipper shrugged being sarcastic, too. " I've only helped Momma and Daddy with it

like a bazillion times."

" Okay," Kowalski sighed as he pulled out a small cinder block table, which was located behind the crib. " I

take it that you don't know how to change a diaper?"

" No, duh," Skipper scoffed as Kowalski finished setting up the table.

" Okay, Grumpy," Kowalski snapped as waddled over and pulled Ace out of his crib. " Guess I'll have to figure

it out myself then." The tall penguin set Ace on his back down on the table then scratched the top of his

head, figuring out where to start. About a few minutes later, he made his decision and began changing the

diaper.

Skipper, who was standing next to Kowalski, was handed the dirty diaper to throw away. " Eww! Eww!

Eww," he shouted as he pinched the diaper in one of his flippers. Skipper hopped over to the trashcan as

fast as he could and stepped on the button to pop the lid up. Once the lid was opened, Skipper tossed the

dirty diaper in there, and released his foot off of the button, causing the trashcan to close rapidly. " That…

was…disgusting," he shuddered as he hopped back to Kowalski.

" You think that's disgusting, I have to clean this kid," Kowalski squeaked as he looked around for something

to clean Ace with. He peered underneath the crib and spotted a small, blue diaper bag with a picture of a

brown teddy bear on the side. Kowalski waddled over, pulled it out, and dug through it until he found what

he needed. After he found what he needed, he resumed changing Ace, until he was in a clean diaper. "

There," Kowalski exhaled as he sat Ace back down into his crib. " All done."

" Good," A baby powder covered Skipper narrowed his eyes at Kowalski. " Now we can go back to bed."

While Kowalski was using the baby powder earlier, he squeezed the bottle too hard and accidentally

squirted Skipper in the face with it when he turned it sideways.

" You might want to take a shower first," Kowalski wiped one of his flippers on the top of Skipper's beak,

taking some of the powder off.

" Yeah," Skipper groaned. " Guess I'd better. Could you get the doors for me, please?"

" Sure, but first I have to wake Rico," Kowalski stated. The tall penguin woke Rico up and had him help open

the hallway door and bathroom door for Skipper. After doing that, Skipper waddled into the bathroom, took

a shower, came out then crawled into bed. Kowalski, who was still afraid of the boogey monster, climbed

into bed with Skipper, again. Skipper sighed, rolled his eyes then fell asleep.

The next day, the boys woke up to a loud knock on the sewer entrance door. " Now who could that be,"

Kowalski yawned as he rolled out of the bunk.

He was about to answer the door when Skipper hopped out in front of him. " What are you doing," Skipper

raised an eyebrow at him.

" Answering the door," Kowalski raised an eyebrow then shrugged. " What do you think I'm doing?"

" You do not know what's behind that door," Skipper voice cracked as he remembered what he was told

about answering the doors to strangers when he was in Kindergarten. " For all we know it could be one of

the zoo keepers coming to take another one of us away."

" Or perhaps it's Uncle Nigel," Kowalski smirked as he tilted his head and folded his flippers.

" What makes you think that," Skipper squinted his eyes.

" He's right behind you," Kowalski chuckled. The doors to their habitat were left unlocked, so their Uncle

Nigel decided to let himself in. He had ruffled black and white feathers and was eight inches taller than

Kowalski, with a round head. Their Uncle Nigel also had the same colored eyes as their mother and was a

tad bit eccentric and crazy, but was still friendly enough to be around.

" Ah," Skipper squealed as soon as he turned around and saw his uncle.

" Gees, Skipper," Uncle Nigel twisted one of his flippers in one of the ear holes in his head. " A nice 'hello'

would've been just dandy."

" Uncle Nigel," Skipper smiled then bounced over to hug his uncle, followed by Kowalski. " Hi. How was the

trip over here?"

" Boring, until a curvy cutie sat next to me on the plane," Uncle Nigel cackled. " I played footsy with her

during the whole flight. She played hard to get, but I knew she couldn't resist me. By the way, Skipper, is

your voice changing and what happened to your leg?" Rico, who was watching from his bunk, jumped down

onto the floor then ran to greet the adult penguin.

" Uncle Nigel," Rico wrapped his flippers around his uncle's torso.

" Hey, Rico," Uncle Nigel cheered as he hugged his three eldest nephews, all at once. " The last time I saw

you, you had just barely hatched." The penguin then looked over at Kowalski. " And Kowalski," he raised his

voice a bit. " I see you haven't changed one bit, except for the height part. How are you doing in school? I

heard from your mother that you are now in the same grade as Skipper now?"

" Yep," Kowalski smiled.

" What grade are you boys in," Uncle Nigel raised in eyebrow.

" The sixth-grade," Kowalski retorted.

" My how time flies," Uncle Nigel widened his eyes then paused. " Well…"

" Well what," Skipper raised an eyebrow.

" Aren't you going to introduce me to Ace," Uncle Nigel questioned.

" Of course," Kowalski uttered. " Follow us."

________________________________________________________________________________________

Horray. Uncle Nigel has finally arrived. Now the penguin brothers have somebody to help take them. LOL. Skipper got squirted with the baby powder. By the way, a part of that is a reference to one of my other stories " In the Not Too Distant Future". Anyways. Coming up next in Chapter 12. Find out what else happens after Uncle Nigel arrives. Please stay tuned and find out more.


	12. Chapter 12

" Days with the Down Feathers"

Thanks for the reviews everyone. They were wonderful. Now here's the next chapter. Please enjoy. BTW: Sorry about not updating this for a while, I was still deciding how to continue the story. Anyway. Thank you for reading this message. Warning: Chapter may be revised, again.

Chapter 12

The boys led their uncle to Ace's crib. He was wrapped in his blanket and still sound asleep.

" Well," Skipper shrugged as he gestured with his flipper. " There he is. Drool and all."

" Aww," Uncle Nigel cooed as he peered into the crib. " He reminds me a lot of when you boys first hatched.

Fluffy and little. Uh? Make that littler."

" So," Skipper's voice cracked, again with a slight squeak in it. " How's Antarctica?"

" Cold," Uncle Nigel shuddered. " Very cold. Plus there are leopard seals around every corner, but they

won't touch me with a ten foot pole."

" What did you do," Kowalski piped as he turned his head toward him.

" I told them I ate leopard seals for breakfast, so they left me alone," Uncle Nigel shrugged then chuckled. "

Shrimp brains."

" So you don't eat leopard seals, ever," Skipper glanced up at him.

" Nope," Uncle Nigel snorted. " Never tried one. Although I did hear from a human that they taste like

chicken mixed with rubber."

" Eww," Skipper scrunched up his face as he felt bial come up his throat. He quickly swallowed it back down.

" What's the matter, Skipper, old chum," Uncle Nigel raised an eyebrow. " Weak stomach?"

" No," Skipper slightly belched a bit. " Just…"

" Don't worry, I'll whip you up some of your Gram's Sweet Antarctica Stew," Uncle Nigel smiled down at him.

" It'll make you feel better, plus it'll make that leg of yours heal a lot faster."

" Oh goody," Skipper fake smiled, avoiding eye contact with the elder penguin. He tried his grandmother's

Sweet Antarctica Stew once, while he was sick in bed with the common cold. It tasted like old dirty socks

mixed with toe jam, plus it smelled like stinky feet with a hint of garlic. Skipper's stomach churned at just

the thought of having to ever eat that stuff, again. It tasted awful, but his mother always told him that the

worst it taste, the better he would feel afterwards. He shivered then looked back up at his Uncle Nigel, who

was staring at him.

" So," Uncle Nigel bellowed. " Aren't you boys supposed to be in school?"

" It's Sunday," Kowalski chirped. " We don't go to school until tomorrow."

" Oh," Uncle Nigel raised his eyebrows. " Well, what is it that you yanks do on Sundays then, if you don't go

to school?"

" Homework," Kowalski chimed.

" Video games," Skipper uttered.

" Comics," Rico shouted after he coughed up a comic book and held it in both of his flippers. It had a picture

of space squids on it.

" You boys don't get out much, do you," Uncle Nigel raised an eyebrow at him as he put his flippers on his

hips.

" Well we do have this game that we like to play outside," Skipper tapped the bottom of his beak. " But it's

for authorized personnel, only. Besides. You wouldn't be interested, anyway."

" And why is that," Uncle Nigel beeped. " I'm still…How does your generation say it now? Hip. Fly. P-hat.

Down with that."

" It's pronounced phat. As in those French fries have a lot of fat," Kowalski corrected with a smile. " And you

don't need to talk like that to us. We're not straight up street yo."

" Sorry," Uncle Nigel sank his head in between his shoulders. " Just thought I'd give it a try. You know, to

stay tight with my peeps. You know, America has changed so much over the years."

" It hasn't changed that much," Skipper squeaked. Suddenly, there was another knock on the sewer

entrance door. " Now who could that be?" He limped over to the door and leaned the side of his head on it.

" Who is it," Skipper hollered then waited for an answer.

" It's Jewel," a female voice squealed. " May I come in?"

" Uh, sure," Skipper retorted, slowly. " Hold on." There was silence followed by a few noises. Soon, Skipper

peeked his head from behind door, after Nigel had helped him open it. " Come in," he smiled then Jewel the

fox stolled inside. " So…"

Jewel looked around before turning to Skipper. " Skipper," she groaned. " We need to talk."

" I was thinking the same thing," Skipper chirped. " And do you know what? I'm okay with breaking up.

Besides, the only reason why I dated you was because I only cared about being popular. Not anymore. I

have more important things to deal with now."

" Okay," Jewel raised an eyebrow as she took a step back. " I, like, so didn't get any of that. Anyways. I

was so going to invite you to this party at my place to celebrate your 'rents being gone. So, like, here you

go." She handed a party invitation to Skipper. It was colored blue and had glitter sprinkled all over it, which

spelled out _To Not Having Any ' Rents_. " Oh, and like by the way, I am so breaking up with you," she scoffed.

" We like have nothing in common. Plus I only dated you because I, like, felt sorry for you. Yeah. That,

and my 'rents don't want me dating you, anyways. So, like, see ya and don't forget about the party." With a

swish of her red tail, she turned around and left through the sewer entrance door and closed it.

After she left, Skipper stood with his eyes wide and his beak opened. " I can't believe it," he murmered.

" You're too good for her, anyway," Uncle Nigel rolled his eyes as he waddled over to him and placed a

flipper on one of his shoulders. " Besides, you'll find another. Perhaps you'll find a beautiful bobble-head

doll. If not, maybe you'll find a nice otter. They're friendly and fun."

" No, you don't understand," Skipper looked up at his uncle. " We broke up with each other. Well,

technically I broke up with Jewel first, but you get the idea."

" Oh," Uncle Nigel raised an eyebrow as he took his flipper back. " Nevermind...So, who's up for the catch of

the day?"

" Depends on what the humans deliver," Kowalski rang. " About a week ago they gave us puffer fish."

" Yeah, and you had to go to the dentist to get one of the puffer fish pointy thingies out of your beak,"

Skipper cackled.

" Don't remind me," Kowalski shuddered then roared as he began poking his brother in the chest with his

flipper. " By the way, it's called the _Boogey Man_. That's B.O.O.G.E.Y. Space. M.A.N. Boogey Man."

" Thanks for the one penguin spelling bee," Skipper snapped as Kowalski took his flipper back and placed it

on one of his hips.

" Hey, hey, you two," Uncle Nigel butted in as he waddled over to the crib, picked up Ace, and cradled him in

his flippers. " That's enough. Come on. Let's go get some grub."

From there, the penguins all went up top to wait for the zookeepers to deliver the fish. " So, what do you

think we'll get today," Skipper tweeted.

" I predict a forty percent chance of us getting the puffer fish, again," Kowalski chirped. " A fifty percent

chance of getting Wednesday's surprise, and a ten percent chance of getting Alaskan salmon."

" Alaskan salmon," Uncle Nigel raised his voice a bit. " Whatever happened to eating shrimp, squid, and the

other types of fish? Don't they know that a balanced diet is a happy diet?"

" Technically, they do give us the nutrition that we need," Kowalski uttered. " By the way, a diet cannot be

happy. It's impossible."

" Fish," Rico shouted as he pointed at Alice, who was carrying a bucket. " Fish."

" Honestly," Alice growled to herself as she walked toward the penguin habitat. " I should write a complaint

letter. Who in their bright minds think that lions should eat Hero sandwiches? Seriously. They're animals."

" Here she comes," Kowalski squealed. " Approaching in five…four…three…two…one." Soon, Alice put her

hand into the bucket and took out some fish. Next, she flung them into the penguin habitat, making them

scatter all over the fish bowl, which was covering the hole to their home.

" Breakfast is served," Skipper piped as he hopped over to pick up a fish. The others followed closely behind

and scanned what they got. Today's special was Alaskan Salmon.

" Wow," Kowalski's eyes flickered as he picked up a fish then swallowed it. " I guess the odds are in our

favor, today."

" Uh-huh," Rico quickly nodded his head with his tongue sticking out then turned to his Uncle Nigel. He just

sat there, staring at the fish.

" Aren't you eating, Uncle Nigel," Kowalski squeaked as he looked at the elder penguin, too. " It's fresh."

" You know," Uncle Nigel chimed as he watched his nephews, minus Ace, engorge the fish. " When I

lived here, I remember learning to hunt for fish, not wait for it to be catered."

" What do you mean," Skipper's voice cracked as he looked up.

* * *

So that's what Jewel is like. She's kind of snobby. Oh, my, gosh. Uncle Nigel tried talking in street slang. LOL . Anyway. Coming up next in Chapter 13. Catch Nigel's answer to Skipper's question. Please stay tuned and find out more.


	13. Chapter 13

" Days with the Down Feathers"

Thanks for the reviews everyone. They were wonderful. BTW: I'm sorry about the long wait. I had a writers block and a stubborn one at that, but, in the words of Kowalski, that's passed. Anyway. Here's the next chapter. Please enjoy and thank-you for waiting patiently. Warning: Chapter may be revised, again.

Chapter 13

" I mean the zoo used to make us search for our food, instead of just handing it over to us like we're house

pets," Uncle Nigel piped then began waddling toward the fish bowl entrance. " Come on. I'll show you boys

how a real penguin catches food."

" But the zookeepers would know that we're missing," Kowalski chirped as the elder penguin removed the

bowl then began climbing down the hole.

" Who said that we were going to be missing," Uncle Nigel buzzed then dropped down into the HQ. The

penguin brothers glanced at each other then followed their uncle inside. Once they were inside, they saw

four plush toys sitting out in front of the table, striking a similar appearance to the penguin family.

" What are these doing in here," Kowalski chirped as he raised his eyebrow at the plush toys.

" We're using them as dummies," Uncle Nigel chimed as he held Private in one flipper, while gesturing with

the other.

" Dummies," Skipper snapped then pointed a flipper at his uncle. " I'll have you know, I ain't a dummy."

" I believe the correct term is decoy, Uncle Nigel," Kowalski piped. " Dummies are merely used to practice

emergency actions, such as an airbag inflation in a car due to a massive impact, per say."

" Alright," Uncle Nigel sighed as he pulled a stroller out from behind his back. " Decoys it is. But either way,

they're going to be temporarily taking our places, while we make a break for the lake."

" Which lake are we going to," Skipper squeaked as his uncle placed Private in the stroller, buckling him in

then picked up the decoys. " And by lake, I mean which habitat? Because we aren't the only animals with

water here."

" The place I'm about to take you is not in any of the zoo's habitats," Uncle Nigel bubbled as he climbed up

the ladder with the decoys then set them on top of the platform. " Instead, I'm taking you boys to Lake

Elizabeth, which is located in the park." The penguin brothers gasped, except for Private.

" But we've never been outside of the zoo walls before," Kowalski squawked as their Uncle slid the bowl

over the entrance and jumped onto the floor.

" We'll there's a first time for everything," Uncle Nigel jingled then started heading toward the sewer

entrance. Next, he grabbed the handle bar of the stroller and began pushing it. " Come on," Nigel gruffed. "

Let's go get us some fish." The penguin brothers glanced at each other then back at their uncle.

" What about Ace," Skipper cracked. " There's no way he can catch a fish by himself."

" Of course not," Uncle Nigel chuckled as he stopped to open the door. " Which is why I'm going to teach

you boys first then have you fish on your own, while I feed Ace. Now, let's get out of here, before all of the

good fish go hiding." With a swift turn on his heels, Nigel and his nephews waddled, or hopped, out of their

home, through the sewer entrance, and began heading toward the direction of the park.

As soon as they reached the park, the penguins snuck out through the manhole and began heading

toward the lake. Once they arrived at the lake, Nigel stopped pushing the stroller that Private was in and

locked the wheels on it. The penguin brothers stopped beside them, stood in a straight line, and widened

their eyes at the lake. " Whoa," Rico grunted out, slowly.

" It's magnificent," Kowalski whistled. " And gigantic."

" It sure beats our swimming pool," Skipper chirped. " This place is sweet."

" It is rather fetching, but not as fetching as it was when I was a boy," Uncle Nigel rang then started

waddling into the lake water. " You three wait here and watch Ace, while I go catch us some lunch."

" Okay," the penguin brothers chanted then watched as their uncle dove into the lake. Its surface area

took up at least eighty-three acres and was deep enough for a submarine.

" So, how long do you think he'll be gone," Skipper squeaked. " And how is he even going to catch any

fish?"

" I estimate about," Kowalski sputtered then paused as Nigel popped his head out of the water with a five-

pound fish in his beak. He swiftly swam toward the shore. " Seven seconds," Kowalski spat out slowly.

" Wow," Skipper piped as the penguin brothers saw their uncle climb out of the water and waddle toward

them. " How did you do that?"

Nigel dropped the fish in his flippers, after he stopped waddling and stood in front of his nephews. " You

know the end of your beak," he gruffed then the boys nodded their heads. " There's a hook of some sort

there, which helps you grab fish. Come on. I'll show you how it works. Skipper, I'm afraid I'll have to show

you later, after your leg heals. In the meantime, please keep an eye on Ace. Alright?"

" Alright," Skipper uttered as his uncle and brothers all went fishing in the water. The lead penguin turned

his head toward Ace's stroller and watched him for a while.

Meanwhile, under the water, Rico and Kowalski watched as their Uncle Nigel swooped down to catch a fish

in his beak and swim back towards them. After he swam back to them, he gestured to the boys by pointing

a flipper at a school of fish. The boys nodded their heads in unison then attempted to do what their uncle

did. First, Rico tried to catch a fish by slowly sneaking behind it. Unfortunately, the fish saw him and swam

away. Rico groaned then followed it, getting left behind. Next, Kowalski tried to catch a fish by making plans

in his head, along with some calculations, while hiding behind a nearby boulder. Once Kowalski was

finished, he charged after the fish at full speed and caught the fish in his beak. To his dismay, the fish

slipped out of his beak and got away. The tall intellect growled then swam up to the surface for a breath of

air. When he reached the surface, he gasped then looked around the lake. He could not see the shore

where he was at, nor Skipper and Ace, for that matter. Kowalski took a deep breath then sunk back down.

His heart started pounding, rapidly. He could not see where Rico and his uncle were, either. Hastily,

Kowalski popped his head out of the water and began screaming for help, but not a soul responded.

Back at the shore of the lake, Nigel and Rico hopped out of the water and waddled toward Skipper and Ace.

They were both asleep. Ace was lying in a sitting position in the stroller, while Skipper had his back leaned

to the side and remained in a sitting position, as well. " Rico," Uncle Nigel whispered. " You don't by any

chance have a camera, do you?" Rico nodded his head then barfed up a camera. The elder penguin

snatched it then took a picture of the two penguins. Nigel lowered the camera then looked around the area

of the lake. " Where's Kowalski," He peeped.

" Don't know," Rico grunted with a shrug, after he glanced around, too.

" Oh dear," Nigel gasped then waddled back toward the water. " You wait here. I'm going to be right back."

With a wag of his tail, he splashed into the water, waking up Skipper.

Skipper blinked then yawned as he stretched his flippers. " What time is it," he groaned, afterward then

widened his eyes as he took in his surroundings. " And where's Uncle Nigel and Kowalski?"

" Lake," Rico coughed as he pointed at the lake.

" Still fishing," Skipper chirped as he stood up, using his crutches to help him balance.

" Nuh-uh," Rico slowly shook his head.

" Just swimming," Skipper raised an eyebrow.

" Nope," Rico honked.

" Then what is it," Skipper boomed.

" Kowalski," Rico stated. " Rescue."

" Kowalski's in trouble," Skipper squawked.

" Uh-huh," Rico swiftly nodded his head up and down.

" What happened," Skipper squeaked as his voice cracked. " When did he disappear?" Rico shrugged. "

Well, it looks like it's time to commence Operation: Lake Rescue," Skipper barked as he began hopping

toward the lake.

When he was at the shoreline, Rico ran over to him and stuck a flipper out, blocking Skipper from moving

any further. He shook his head. " Cast," Rico tweeted.

" I don't care if my cast gets wet, Rico," Skipper bellowed as he glared at his brother. " Right now, Kowalski

needs us." Rico rolled his eyes, wrapped his flippers around Skipper's body, and heaved him onto his right

shoulder, causing Skipper to complain. Next, he ran Skipper over to the stroller and set him down on the

ground, where he was at before.

" Ace," Rico muttered as he pointed at the stroller.

" I know, he needs us, too," Skipper murmured with a sigh then pointed his flipper at the water. " But we

have to go out there and rescue Kowalski, too. Otherwise, it violates the penguin credo. So, are you in or

are you out?"

* * *

Aww. Nigel is teaching the penguin brothers how to fish. Uh-oh. Kowalski got lost in the lake. I hope that his uncle can find him, soon. Anyway. Coming up next in Chapter 14. Catch Rico's answer to Skipper's question. Please stay tuned and find out more. BTW: If you are interested in guest starring in any of my current stories, please Private Message me and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Thank-you for reading this message.


	14. Chapter 14

" Days with the Down Feathers"

Thanks for the reviews, everyone. They were fabulous. Anyway. Here's the next chapter. Please enjoy. Warning: Chapter may be revised, again.

Chapter 14

" I'm in," Rico grunted.

Skipper took in a deep breath then stood back up. " Let's go," he mumbled.

Meanwhile, far away from the shore of where his brothers were at, Kowalski struggled to keep his head

above the water. Unfortunately, his limbs started going limp as his breathing became shallow, after a

while. Soon, his mind became clouded with thoughts as he let out a deep breath. _Why did I have to follow _

_that fish._ The penguin screamed in his head._ Or better yet, why did I have to go full throttle to catch it without _

_thinking. _Kowalski sighed._ That's what I get for forgetting to estimate the differentials between the pool at _

_home and here. I guess I'm not as smart as I, or what everyone else, thought._ Suddenly, his thoughts were

yanked away from him when he saw something moving close to the surface of the water. Kowalski held his

breath as he stared at the spot then swam toward it. When he got there, he stopped and watched the

figure, carefully. Soon, without warning, a fish jumped right out of the water, splashing Kowalski in the

face, and dived back into the lake. It was the exact same fish that Kowalski was trying to catch, earlier.

Kowalski groaned then snapped his head up when he saw a black and white figure in the distance.

The tall intellect gasped. " Hey," he hollered, waving a flipper in the air, while keeping afloat with the other.

" I'm over here." The figure saw him and began swimming toward him. As it got closer, Kowalski squinted

his eyes then widened them. " Rico," he chirped as Rico came into view.

" Uh-huh," Rico grunted with a nod as he came to a stop.

" Oh, thank heavens," Kowalski sighed as he wiped his forehead with one of his flippers then looked

around the lake. " Where's Uncle Nigel?"

" Lake," Rico choked out as he pointed toward a random area of the water. " You."

" Uncle Nigel's looking for me," Kowalski squeaked. Rico lowered his flipper and nodded his head.

" What about you," Kowalski chimed. " Or did you get yourself stranded, too?"

" You. Looking," Rico belched out. " Skipper, too."

" Skipper's looking for me, too and so were you," Kowalski piped.

" Yeah," Rico gruffed. All of a sudden, thunder rumbled throughout the water. Apparently, there was

supposed to be a rainstorm, today that the penguins did not know of or hear about, at all.

" I think we'd better find a way to get out of here and fast," Kowalski tweeted, while he was looking up at

the now dark and cloudy sky then snapped his attention toward Rico. " Rico, do you have a lifesaver we

could use to help us paddle back to shore?" Rico bobbed his head once then coughed up a piece of hard

candy. He handed it over to Kowalski who just gawked at it.

" I meant an inner tube, not a piece of sugary, fruit flavored candy," Kowalski groaned as he lightly slapped

his forehead. " But I've got to admit, I am getting kind of hungry."

From up above, thunder clapped, again. Next, it started to drizzle then pour rain, causing the water and

the brothers to become chilly. " But," Kowalski stuttered as he shivered. " That's going to have to wait.

Rico, any luck finding an inner tube?"

Rico attempted to cough up a real lifesaver, but nothing came up. " Nope," the manic penguin buzzed, after

shaking his head from side to side. Before they knew it, two bright lights blind sighted them, causing them

to squint. Next, a lifesaver landed directly in between them. The two penguin brothers raised their

eyebrows and looked over to find their Uncle Nigel, along with Skipper and Private inside a red and white,

toy-speed boat.

" Grab hold," Uncle Nigel hollered over the rain as he stood up and held onto the rope, which was attached

to the lifesaver. The two in the water wrapped their flippers around the ring of the lifesaver then were

pulled to safety. As soon as they were pulled to safety, two pairs of flippers swung around them, tightly.

" Breathe," Rico huffed as he gasped for air.

" Sorry," Skipper rang as he and Nigel removed their flippers.

" Come on," Uncle Nigel buzzed as he ran toward the steering wheel of the boat, which was just an RC

remote control. " We'd best be getting out of here, before…" Suddenly, lightning struck near the boat,

where Rico and Kowalski were trying to keep afloat, earlier, ending with a loud boom. " Before that

happens," he stated slowly then paused to roar as he gripped onto the wheel of the remote control,

getting ready to hit a switch, which was right next to it. " Boys, buckle up and hang on tight." With a flip of

a switch, the boat started going foreword at a hasty rate. As a matter of fact, the boat was sailing so fast

that it had began skipping like a flat rock, all the way to shore, which was furthest from the Central Park

Zoo.

Once the boat had reached the shore, it skidded across the dirt and grass, until it came to a full stop. Next,

the family hopped out of the boat and began heading back to the zoo. Along the way there, Kowalski and

Rico had began sneezing and sniffling. Unlike other Antarctic penguins, they were not quite as adaptable to

lower temperatures and preferred warmer climates more. They had began to wonder if the zoo made a

mistake labeling them as cold climate penguins, but dismissed the question when they saw snow on the

ground, one day, and played in it, except for Kowalski, who had kept catching colds.

" Uncle Nigel," Kowalski moaned, after wrapping his flippers around himself, to keep warm. " I don't feel so

good. I think I caught a cold."

" Don't worry," Uncle Nigel buzzed. " We're almost home. And when we get there, I'll whip up that stew, I

promised."

" Great," Kowalski wheezed then sneezed. About ten minutes later, the penguins had arrived at the zoo

and slipped back into their habitat, through the sewer entrance. Once they were inside the habitat, the

four brothers sat at the table, while their Uncle made the stew on a pop out stove in a small pot, which

was hidden inside the wall, right next to the fridge. When he was done making the stew, he pulled out

three small bowls, along with three spoons, from behind his back and balanced them all on one flipper.

Next, he grabbed the ladle, which he used to stir the food, earlier, and placed a small amount of stew into

each bowl. Afterward, he waddled over to the table and placed a bowl and a spoon in front of each of his

elder nephews.

His nephews just sat there and stared at their bowls, except for Private, who was giggling at them from his

high chair, which was at the end of the table, furthest from the sewer entrance. " Okay," Skipper uttered

from the seat, closest to the sewer entrance. " Who wants to go first?"

" Not me," Rico grunted from the seat next to Skipper.

" I'm not even sure what's in this," Kowalski honked from across Skipper. " So, not me."

" Fine," Skipper scoffed as he rolled his eyes. " I'll go first." The lead penguin picked up his spoon, dipped it

into the stew, and lifted it up. " Bottom's up," Skipper half-whispered then stuck the spoonful of stew into

his mouth. His face turned green for a split second then he shivered, after he had swallowed the stew. The

other two followed after, but spat theirs all over the table, shortly after the stew had touched their taste

buds.

" Good Galileo," Kowalski yipped as he glared at the bowl. " What is in there?"

" Liver, onions, catfish, and garlic," Nigel piped as he sat down next to Kowalski. " Not to mention I put my

foot in it." After he had said that, the three brothers shoved their bowls away toward the center of the

table. " Oh well," Nigel shrugged. " More for me…You know, your dear old gram would have loved to see

you boys at least eat a bowl of her stew. She'd have appreciated that. But I can see you boys don't love

her that much to do that. Not to mention that you're not going to get better as quick." He sighed. "Looks

like I get to go to the drive-in movies by myself, this Friday tonight," he mumbled, sounding mournful.

The three brothers looked at each other with raised eyebrows. " Huddle up, team," Skipper barked then he

and his brothers gathered as close as they could from where they were sitting. They began talking for a

while and when they were done, they looked over at their Uncle Nigel. " Which movie is it," Skipper uttered.

" It's an action movie with science, explosives, and many other things you boys would like," Nigel piped. "

Also, it is titled _Space Squids_ _II_, which I had just barely heard about on the plane, while I was flying over

here."

" _Space Squids II_," the boys chimed, grabbed their bowls of stew, and swallowed the liquid down, ignoring

the flavor it had.

" Suckers," Uncle Nigel mumbled to himself as he folded his flippers and chuckled. " There is no _Space Squids _

_II_. It is just the prequel to _Space Squids I_. Oh well. If it's got space squids in it, the boys will be happy...and

not to mention healthier, due to the stew."

* * *

Yay. Kowalski's been saved. Ew. So that's what the ingredients are to Gram's Sweet Antarctica Stew. BTW: I got the " I put my foot in it" line from one of the episodes of "The Proud Family". Anywho. Coming up next in Chapter 15. Catch what else happens before the penguin family goes to the movies. Please stay tuned and find out more. Important note: As of January 20, 2009, I will not be updating any of my stories as fast as I normally would, due to school work. Thank-you for reading this message.


	15. Chapter 15

"Days With the Down Feathers"

Thanks for the reviews and thanks for your patience, everybody. Anyway, here is the next chapter. Please enjoy.

Chapter 15

Shortly after the penguins finished eating, they went to bed. Nigel slept on the bunk above Rico, while Kowalski and Skipper

slept in the bunks below. Suddenly, a clap of thunder rattled the penguins' habitat, which woke up Skipper. Groaning,

Skipper grabbed the ends of his pillow and squished them against the sides of his head. Unfortunately, the sounds from the

storm still seeped through." Man, I wish this storm would just stop already," he grumbled upon hearing the thunder roar,

again. Moments later, Skipper peeked his head out of the bunk and faced Kowalski. "Kowalski," he murmured. "Kowalski?"

"What," Kowalski mumbled with a yawn.

"I've finally figured out that problem you gave to me," Skipper chirped. "It's one eighth, right?"

"Yeah, it is," Kowalski piped then sneezed. "Looks like you do have a brain in that flat-topped skull of yours."

"Thanks, I think," Skipper uttered then went to sleep.

Soon, it was the next day. Rico was the first to wake up and jump out of his bunk. He looked around the habitat, trying to

find something to do. After a few seconds had passed, his eyes widened. He spotted the microwave in the corner, which

went untouched after his parents left. He glanced at the bunks. The other penguins were still sleeping. Quietly, Rico tip-toed

over to the microwave and coughed up a fork. He peeked at the bunks one more time then looked at the fork. He steadily

put it in the microwave then set the timer. Rico had been told not to do this when he was younger, but was still curious.

Suddenly, sparks surrounded the fork. Rico widened his eyes, grinning. Next, the microwave began whirring and bouncing.

Rico pointed and giggled. Suddenly, the microwave blew up, rattling the whole habitat. The rest of the penguins woke up,

gasping.

"What in the name of Chef Boyardee was that," Skipper squeaked.

Kowalski looked around, squinting his eyes. He spotted a flipper under a pile of metal then widened his eyes. " Oh no,"

Kowalski yelped as he hopped out of his bunk. He sprinted toward the blown up microwave and started removing the

pieces. Skipper followed then helped. Eventually, they found Rico, who was unconscious and had a bleeding beak. Skipper

and Kowalski picked up Rico then carried him to the bottom bunk. Nigel jumped onto the floor, waddled toward Rico then

widened his eyes.

"I'll go get the medical kit," Nigel stated as he ran to the bathroom. Meanwhile, Ace was in his crib, bawling. Kowalski

cradled him, trying to calm him down. Skipper stared at Rico, frowning.

"Skipper," Kowalski uttered.

"Do you think he's going to be alright," Skipper muttered. "It looks kinda bad."

"By the looks of it, he'll be fine," Kowalski retorted, while rocking Ace in his flippers.

A few minutes later, Nigel busted through the door and ran toward Rico. When he got there, he pulled out the medical kit

and began cleaning his wound. The others stood, watching. After the wound was clean, they covered their beaks, gasping.

There was a gash in the side of his face. It stretched from the top corner of his beak to his collar bone. Next, Nigel stitched

up and bandaged the wound. Soon, Rico opened his eyes then sat up, flinching.

"Ow," he grunted then patted the side of his beak. Rico growled then started peeling the soft fabric off.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Nigel snapped.

"Why," Rico snarled.

"You have a cut on the side of your face," Kowalski stated then sneezed. "It's very deep."

"Oh," Rico muttered then hollered. "What?"

" I'm afraid you have an injury," Nigel said. The others nodded their heads.

"Oh," Rico retorted.

"Rico, what were you doing," Skipper stated then pointed at Rico. "And don't tell me you were putting forks in the

microwave, again."

"Uh," Rico stuttered, while looking up at the ceiling and twiddling his flippers.

"Rico, you didn't," Skipper squawked as he threw his flippers in the air. " You know why we're not supposed to do that and

now look at what happened. You could've killed yourself."

"Killed," Rico peeped, while raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, killed," Skipper bellowed. " As in not waking up ever again."

Rico's lower beak trembled, while his eyes filled up with tears. "Sorry," he whimpered.

Skipper sighed then stormed outside, slamming the sewer entrance door behind him. The group gawked at the door then

looked at Rico, who was sobbing.

9809808080980

Whoa. Poor Rico. Anyway, coming up next in Chapter 16. How will the group handle Rico's accident? Please stay tuned and find out more.


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